One With The Mists
by Bakufan15
Summary: Izuku Midoriya isn't quite quirkless. He was something else, something more dangerous. He's Mistborn. [[On Hiatus, will return in the future]]
1. Chapter 1

**Awakening**

* * *

Izuku was always different from other children. He didn't run out in the yard and play with the animals or bugs. He didn't get invited to birthday parties, since he didn't really have any good friends. That was probably for the best, though.

They'd probably be afraid of what he could do anyways.

* * *

15 years ago, Midoriya Inko and Midoriya Hisashi found a small bundle on their porch, wrapped up in black and grey cloth. It was like a scene straight out of a movie; wrapped in the tassels was a small child - a boy - and a note.

 _May you take care of him here, somewhere far away from that other place._

It was simple, short, and to the point, the implications obvious. Some stranger had left their unwanted child on the Midoriya's doorstep.

Following the discovery, Hisashi and Inko broke out into a nasty fight. They both knew how bad the foster care system in Japan was, considering that most of the time, the weaklings just got left behind to deal with everything from malnourishment to abandonment.

Inko wanted the keep the child; she'd always wanted a son, but hadn't quite been ready to brave pregnancy, but at the same time, Hisashi didn't want children at all.

The fight ended with Hisashi screaming his way out of the house, leaving Inko alone with the babe.

She'd been forced to sell the house and move into a small apartment in the middle of town. She worked long, hard hours while also trying her best to provide for the child.

She'd named him Izuku.

* * *

Growing up was a lonely thing for Izuku. Inko was out working from early in the morning to late at night, so he was left to the daycare for most of the day. While there, he didn't interact much with the other children, preferring solitude to social interaction, which labelled him as the outcast.

Maybe it was because all the other kids made fun of Izuku. His skin was extraordinarily pale and his hair color didn't even match his mother's; her dark green hair contrasted with his dark brown, and most people asked if he was even her son.

He knew he wasn't.

Izuku eventually asked for his mother to dye his hair green.

* * *

In kindergarten, everyone started to get their Quirks. It started with the blonde haired kid.

 _The loud one_. Izuku was the only kid in the class that didn't faun over the the sparks emanating from his palms. Instead, he turned back to his books.

More and more kids got their Quirks as time went on. Some were relatively useless, some were flashy, and some were actually useful, although the majority fell into the first two categories. Ironically, even as he saw the variety of powers each of his classmates manifested, Izuku found himself hoping he didn't even get one for himself.

Getting a Quirk would make him stand out even more. Without some flashy superpower, he could blend into the background beter. He could get ignored easier. The bullies would pick on him less.

Coming home with bruises wasn't an uncommon occurance. After the first couple of times, Izuku's mother had contacted the school and made a complaint about the bullying, but it didn't stop anything. The bullies just got smarter about where they hit him, bruising spots that were normally unexposed, knowing he wouldn't actively show off his injuries to his mother. To their credit, they were right.

* * *

Izuku turned four and didn't have a Quirk yet, so his mother took him to the Quirk Doctor. They did a variety of tests on him, and Izuku did as told without complaint. Even when they had to draw blood, he didn't cry and scream like a normal child would. He and his mother waited in the waiting room for at least an hour, which was odd, as the doctor mentioned that the results should be out in a few simple minutes. When the nurse finally came out and called their last name, Izuku heard his mother breathe out a sigh of relief.

The doctor was sitting behind his desk, an unholy amount of papers sprawled out across his desk to the point that the tabletop underneath wasn't even visible when Izuku and Inko walked in.

"Miss Midoriya, how do I say this…" The doctor paused. "Your son is the biggest anomaly I've ever seen."

Izuku perked up. He'd been expecting the doctor to say that he was just Quirkless. Inko tilted her head as well at the doctor's statement, attention likewise held.

"Look here," He slid over an x-ray. "This is a scan of a child with a Quirk's foot, and your son's foot. Notice any difference?"

Izuku looked at the paper as well and after a moment, his mother shook her head. "No."

The doctor pointed to an empty space by the pinky toe. "Exactly. If your son were Quirkless, there would be an extra toe joint. It has to do with how we evolved, getting rid of the unneeded gene."

"So he's going to get a Quirk?" Inko asked. Izuku sat back in his chair, unsure how to feel. Whether he got a Quirk or not by this point, word would probably spread of his situation, which would once again mark him as 'unordinary'.

"Not so fast," The doctor brought up another piece of paper. "This is the results of the blood test I had taken after I noticed the toe joint. This is a visualization of a specific part of a genome, what's called a 'Quirk Factor'. Simply put, its the part of the genome that harbors the data for developing a Quirk. You don't see a person with a Quirk without one, and you don't see a Quirkless Person with one. Now this," He pulled out another paper. "Is what we got back when we tried to run your son's genome."

The data on the paper was very similar to the one he'd shown a moment before, with a variety of lines and letters, but the new one had one key difference. There was an entire section of Izuku's genome that was blank.

"There is no Quirk Factor. He doesn't have one, which can only mean that he's Quirkless," The doctor sat back. "It conflicts with the toe joint, but it's the only conculsion I can safely come to."

Izuku let out a breath. Quirkless afterall. Maybe the kids at school would stop asking him when his Quirk would come in and finally leave him alone. He and Inko thanked the doctor and left the hospital shortly after.

* * *

Izuku and Inko were on the way back from the doctor's appointment when it happened. The everything had been going so smoothly on the lightrail. Nobody was giving Izuku weird looks, and his mother was holding his hand tightly.

Out of all the things Izuku wished to hide from in the world, his mother was his one safe haven. She was the only person that he truly felt safe around, the only person that he could let himself relax with. She knew him better than anyone and he really did love her, and the fact that she wasn't his biological mother did nothing to change that fact. She'd sacrificed so much for him and he just wanted to find a way to repay her. He knew the story of how she'd brought him in, it was inevitable, considering how differently he looked from her. He knew how much hardship she'd faced because of him, especially after her husband walked out.

She was his anchor, his guiding light.

That's why Izuku clung onto her leg for support when the tram came to a screeching halt mid-transit. Everyone onboard looked around in confusion as the doors to the train car were pried open and a few men burst through, all wearing some sort of face mask with the exception of the one in the middle, a tall, blonde man with massive, exposed muscles covering his entire body.

It was a massacre. The muscled man attacked indiscriminately and with lethal force. There was blood on the walls, blood pooling on the floor. Inko cowered to the corner, holding Izuku tightly while the boy sat, frozen in what could only be described as sheer terror. The men were _killing_. Killing everyone for no reason. Bodies slumped to the cold ground one by one, nobody able to leave the tram, nobody able to fight back against the men. Inko covered his eyes, but it didn't stop him from catching a glimpse of one of the other passengers having their head slammed into the wall with an explosion of brain matter and blood.

The blonde man Izuku had noticed earlier finally spotted him and Inko in the corner. He locked eyes with Izuku and licked his lips, walking over with the a nightmarish, sadistic grin plastered on his face. Inko screamed as the the punch came, but it was cut short as she fell limp a moment later. She didn't get back up. Izuku looked down at the body of his mother and all went blank.

Something snapped.

Izuku fell to his knees and gazed up at the large man in front of him. He readied himself for the finishing blow that never came. All the rustling around the cabin of the tram car ceased as the men looked to each other, then to the carnage they'd just produced. As if coming to their senses, many of the men dropped their weapons, gasping in horror. They all fled the scene mere moments later.

That left Izuku alone in the train car, a lone child in a graveyard.

Izuku cried for the first time in his memory.

* * *

Izuku was barely cognizant for the next few weeks. The police and heroes had arrived at the scene a few minutes later, and he had been taken back to the hospital with the rest of the victims. A few survived, but his mother wasn't one of them.

Izuku was kept in the hospital for a while after the attack. It could have been a few weeks, it could have been a couple months, he didn't really know, nor did he really care. All that dominated his mind was the day to day routine: the doctors would come in and feed him and do some tests throughout the day. Some days he'd go to therapy, and some he'd go stay in his little hospital bed.

Over time, Izuku realized that there were other children at the hospital as well. Some were afflicted with Quirk problems, while others had more traidionally medical related issues. The nurses tried to get him to interact with the other children, saying it would help with his recovery, but Izuku refused every time.

They'd just bully and make fun of him for being different, and this time his mother wouldn't be there to stop them from going for the face.

Things hardly got better with time. Izuku started to become more aware of the world around him, starting to focus on more than just his inner dread. He got out of his room a bit more, and he started actually talking to the therapist, not that it helped much. He heard the doctor's whispers: he wasn't getting any better, and soon they'd give up, just pawn him off to some child-care facility. The last thing he wanted was to learn what those were like. Still, every time he tried to find the motivation to do _anything_ , he failed. He just thought about how useless it would all be, if he'd be hopeless against a villain attack, just like his mother. He was Quirkless afterall.

Everything changed when a very specific video came on the television one day. It depicted a massive man with pointy, blonde hair, holding up over twenty victims with ease, carrying them away from a massive fire that lit up the background. Someone talked over the video about how he'd already saved three times as many people. When Izuku asked the nurse who is was, she just nodded. "Oh that old video? That's All Might's debut," she said with a hand wave. Then, she froze, noticing the look in the young boy's eyes. "Do you want me to rewind it?"

Izuku didn't know what had him so mesmerized about the video as he watched it again. And again. And again, and again, and again. He watched the video over at least twenty times before the nurse said it was enough. Even after the television was off, he kept replaying it in his mind, imagining the booming words from the Hero as he carried entire families to safety.

It was like...a sense of hope. An impression that, despite everything, things would turn out alright. Despite everything that had happened to his mother, he'd turn out okay if he just _fought_. Then it clicked. Everything fell into place.

That hero had saved those people, they'd have died without his help. They'd be like his mother, buried in the ground somewhere, cold and alone, and Izuku realized in that moment something that changed his life. If he could become a hero, he could fight for those people. People like his mother, who died because there wasn't a hero there to save her. He could save them.

* * *

Naturally, heroes become an obsession for Izuku. It wasn't like other kids' passions, where they'd play a game of soccer outside a couple of times a week. No, every moment Izuku was able to, he was researching heroes, noting their Quirks and their abilities, extrapolating their areas of strengths and weaknesses, and taking note on what kind of crime they fought.

He started making notebooks, filling them with information on heroes. It gave him something to do other than wallow in despair. It was like a coping mechanism. He'd wake up, look at hero news on the hospital TV, go through the rest of the day, and take notes again before bed.

The doctors must have noticed the progress, because in just two weeks, they released him from the hospital into foster care.

* * *

 _9 years later_

* * *

Izuku's stretched carefully as he woke up. His space was very limited, and while his room was private - which was better than most of the other foster children got - it was very minimalistic. The foster home didn't have very much space for too many kids to have their own rooms, but after being there for as many years as he had, he got some extra liberties.

He sat up, brushing the covers off of his lap. He could smell the simple breakfast downstairs,and he needed to at least eat before he headed to school, so he threw on his uniform, grabbed his most recent notebook (volume fifteen) and stuffed it in his backpack along with his laptop. He could copy down the hero news after he showed up to class early.

Izuku was the first to class, as per usual. He didn't like to spend too much at the foster home, so he tended to arrive at school a little bit earlier than most students who weren't part of a club. It wasn't that he felt unwelcome at the house, far from it. Everyone was nice and welcoming and many of the children looked up to him as an older brother, it was just that he felt like there were better things to be doing, always somewhere else to be. He frequently didn't return home until late at night, taking walks around the local area or working on homework at the park.

Izuku was looking at news articles on his laptop when the rest of the class started to funnel in. Some regarded him, most didn't. He had a habit of trying to melt into the background whenever his classmates glanced in his direction, a leftover habit from his elementary school years. Most didn't even care about him anymore, but old habits die hard.

The class started and Izuku put his laptop away. All of his subjects were a breeze, since he was a good student in every single subject. Of course, that was because ge needed to be if he was going to get into Yuuei.

The day was long, but it wasn't any different than others. What Izuku really cared about was getting it all over with so he could go out into town and see if he could catch some hero action first hand.

Finally, homeroom came around, the last class before release.

"Alright class, settle down," The teacher called. "I have an important announcement. Your high school application forms are due by tomorrow. Many of you have turned in your decisions, but a few of you have yet to turn it in."

Izuku had turned his in on the day that he'd gotten it. He was going for the Yuuei hero course, and it never hurt to be ahead of the game. He needed any advantage he could get, especially since his official file labelled him as Quirkless. Not that his file was wrong, of course.

"Bakugo, you're going to Yuuei, right?" The teacher asked. Izuku rolled his eyes as the blonde snickered, sitting up a little taller. Izuku hated it every time the teacher fed into the boy's ego. It was big enough as is.

"Of course I am, teach. Who do you think I am, some extra?"

The teacher nodded. "Midoriya, you as well?"

Izuku's gut dropped as all the eyes in the room turned towards him. In the blink of an eye, he'd gone from pleasantly invisible to the center of attention. He wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to go.

"Yes," He said softly. Izuku was aware of Bakugo's angry eyes on him. He shut his own, hoping that everyone would get the clue and back off.

"Well," The teacher interrupted, clearing his throat and the awkward air that had fallen upon the classroom along with it. "That's it for today. You are dismissed."

Izuku waited for most of the class to leave before putting his things away. He'd just gotten his laptop into his bag when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the teacher leave the room.

As if on queue, Bakugo's hand came crashing down onto Izuku's desk with an explosion and Izuku jumped out of it at the very same moment, narrowly avoiding getting blasted by the other boy's fit of rage. A moment later, Izuku's shirt was wrapped up in a tight, sizzling fist.

"What are you on, thinking you'll be a hero?" Bakugo snapped/ "I'm the only one in this piece of shit school worth anything. I'll be the only one to get into Yuuei. You don't even have a quirk, you useless piece of shit."

 _He's right. You don't have a quirk. You're a freak, something different. Inko shouldn't have ever taken you in_. a voice told him in the back of his mind. Izuku shoved aside the thoughts in favor of putting his energy into getting out of the altercation with a minimal amount of burn marks.

Bakugo must've noticed his long pause, because he continued. "Listen here, you twerp. You're not going to apply to Yuuei. Find somewhere else, freak," Bakugo's other hand, the one not pulling at Izuku's shirt, cackled with sparks right next to the pale boy's face.

With an internal sigh, Izuku caved to the temptation. He knew he shouldn't, he'd just perpetuate the rumors, but he'd been through this song and dance already. Without some...encouragement, the next thing Bakugo would do would be to use his Quirk on Izuku, leaving yet another irritating blemish that would take a week to heal.

Izuku used his Luck.

It was a tiny reserve, but it was enough. He tapped into the small well inside his consciousness, directing it towards Bakugo as unnoticeably as possible.

Bakugo eyed Izuku for a moment, before dropping him, his anger seemingly subsided, just like every other time Izuku used his Luck. "Do yourself a favor," the explosion aficionado said on his way out, tone only slightly more neutral. "Toss yourself off the building and hope you're born with a Quirk next time. Worst case scenario you join your mom in the ground."

Izuku grimaced. The jab hurt, but it wasn't something he couldn't take. Only once Bakugo was gone did Izuku let up his pressure with the Luck. He gathered his bag and headed towards the exit.

Izuku discovered his Luck a little while after living at the foster home. At first, everyone at school had given him space, respecting his loss. Then, as things do, everything returned to normal. People started picking on him again.

And when that happened, Izuku learned something. Sometimes, he had something to fight back. It was only there every so often, and it was shoddy at best, but it was better than nothing. It was 'Luck'. When he used it, the people around him seemed to get less angry. As time went on, Izuku realized they became less...well, everything. All their emotions were softer, and they were more open to listening to him.

Then came the confusion.

What was this power? What was this Luck? He was Quirkless, so he couldn't have a Quirk. He didn't even have a Quirk Factor, the ability to develop a Quirk was quite literally not a part of his genetics. It had to be something else. Some other type of power.

Another thing to make him different.

Perhaps he should just start calling it a Quirk. It would make everything easier on everyone else and himself. Yet, despite the fact that it was most logical to do so, he couldn't bring himself to lie like that. Afterall, he'd been registered as Quirkless for years now, he couldn't just go back on it so far along without raising questions.

So, he just left it as it was. He didn't even try to figure out anything about his Luck, just used it when he needed to.

Izuku sighed, passing under the bridge that he went under every day on the way back from school. It had a little river running by it and a man cover that led to the sewers. Some days, there'd be some koi fish in the sewer, which was odd and also a bit concerning, considering that sewage was most likely far from the healthiest environment for fish to be living in.

Just as Izuku was about to leave the underpass, he heard the grinding sound of metal scraping against concrete. He whipped around, just in time to see _something_ come crawling out of the manhole cover he'd just walked over.

"Oh, perfect! A disguise!" A voice said, and the _blob_ that had just emerged from the hole started to rush at Izuku.

Izuku's fight or flight instincts kicked in. He'd been a part of villain attack before, he wouldn't have it happen again. Izuku turned heel and ran as fast as his feet would take him.

"Hey, get back here!" The thing called after him, but Izuku didn't look back. There would be heroes on the main road, if only he could just….get there. The villain, it's body a blob of sludge, was right on Izuku's heels. It was going to catch him if he didn't speed up.

Izuku gritted his teeth and willed his legs to move faster. _Get away, you'll die._

Like reacting to a command, his body responded by...moving faster. His legs felt less tired, bounding further with each step and he felt more balanced, his legs didn't wobbling less as he ran.

 _The power of adrenaline,_ Izuku thought as he frantically fled from the monster. He was gaining ground, now, and soon enough they'd be on the main road.

Izuku kept running like his life depended on it, because it _did_ , in all likelihood. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if the sludge caught up to him. Eventually, he burst out into the middle of an open street bustling with activity. He was in a crowded area now, so even if the sludge monster caught him, there would be heroes there to stop it.

Then, everything slowed down. His rush, his extra 'boost' seemed to have just...run out. Izuku stumbled as he lost his balance, falling to the ground. A few pedestrians noticed him skirting around him ungracefully. Then, a moment later, they noticed the slime villain and ran away with a chorus of screams for help. Izuku tried to get up, but found his arms and legs to be extraordinarily tired, like he'd over-exerted his body, as if he'd pushed himself beyond his breaking point.

The sludge monster was on him in an instant. Slime covered Izuku's body and forced itself down his throat. The sludge smelled just like sewage, and the slimy texture made his skin crawl. He tried to claw at his captor, but his hands sunk straight through the liquidy body the helplessly. He tried to scream, but no noise came out and he couldn't breathe.

"Finally caught you, twerp," The villain sneered. "Now be a good kid and sit still so this can be over quickly."

He tried to scrape the sludge away from his mouth again, but he found his arms and legs becoming weak as his body ran out of oxygen. As time went on, his limbs became too tired to do anything but sit uselessly under the slime. Izuku looked around the area frantically, searching for something, _anything_ to come help him, even as black spots started to fill his vision and he ran out of air.

Then, just as Izuku was about to give up hope, a figure came running out of the crowd. Izuku recognized him immediately as the professional hero Death Arms, marked by his signature metal arm braces that resembled construction tape.

The hero ran forwards, straight towards the slime villain. He roared, throwing his arms forward to strike the sludge, only for his body to sink uselessly into the viscous liquid. The sludge villain turned, throwing Death Arms off with one powerful strike. Izuku watched as his help flew across the street like a discarded doll.

Izuku couldn't fight back, the heroes couldn't get to him, and he was going to die, oh _Go_ _d he was going to die_. He was going to die to a villain attack, just like his mother had.

Izuku could feel his grip on consciousness slipping away and he coudn't even move his body anymore. He frantically reached inside, searching for one last boost. One last drop of Luck.

But his Luck had run out.

He was out of Luck, having used it all on Bakugo earlier. He couldn't do anything.

Izuku felt even deeper in the confines of his mind, searching. He grasped at thin air, nothing coming. He pleaded into the metaphorical void, calling for anyone to help him.

Then, he felt it.

Another well of power. It was familiar, like his Luck, but also different in its own way. Izuku seemed to gravitate towards it, and with one, frantic leap, he grabbed ahold of the source.

Translucent blue lines shot out from Izuku's chest, springing out towards around him seemingly at random. Not knowing what he was doing, Izuku grasped at them, hoping something would help.

Suddenly, he felt a force run through him, like he was being compressed from a thousand different directions. He screamed despite the sludge in his throat as everything around him distorted. The lamp posts bent, street signs were blown from their bases, nails that held together merchant stands tore out of the wood, and the steel rebar in the concrete tried to shoot away, causing the pavement to crack. With one last effort, Izuku reversed his endeavor, reflexively pulling on all the blue lines instead of pushing. Everything stopped for a lasting moment before it all started to come right back. Thousands of pieces of metal shot directly towards Izuku and the sludge villain. Whatever power he'd drawn upon dissapeared and the blue lines went with it, as did the tension pulling his body apart. The power was gone, but the damage had already been dealt. A spare nail soared, striking the sludge villain through the eye and the monster recoiled, dropping Izuku on reflex. The boy barely had time to hit the ground before giant masses of debris shot through the air to where he'd been just a moment before. A street sign tore through the sludge villain's liquid body just as hundreds of tiny pieces of debris shot through the form.

The villain was reduced to tiny globules of slime in a mere moment.

The last thing Izuku saw before he lost consciousness was a figure running through the crowd towards him.

Everything went black.

* * *

When izuku awoke, he was laying down on some kind of soft bed. He opened his eyes, searching for clues as to what had happened. Only then did he realize he was in the back of an ambulance on a stretcher. He tried to sit up, only for his entire right side to flare up in an intense pain, and with a gasp, Izuku laid back down on the stretcher.

"Oh, he's awake!" a voice called from somewhere nearby. Izuku heard the sound of footsteps, quiet at first but ganing volume as he their owner approached. Someone stopped right behind him and a couple seconds later he was sitting upright, pushed up by the stretcher. Izuku's side burned slightly, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when he tried to sit up on his own.

"What happened?" Izuku said groggily, rubbing a hand through his hair. He had a _horrible_ headache. The man that had sat him up smiled, his parademic uniform glistening in the artificial light of the ambulance.

"You passed out after the fight with the villain. You've only been out for a few minutes. I missed the fight, but, judging by the aftermath, you did a good job, kid." The paramedic said it with a hint of...awe in his voice? No, that couldn't be right.

Izuku vaguely remembered the incident. He'd been acting on instinct the entire time, just trying to get away from his attacker. He remembered getting caught, then blue lines, then nothing.

Suddenly, Izuku realized something frightening. Something far more frightening than even the villain had seemed.

 _The foster home can't afford a medical bill like this!_ Izuku thought frantically, forcing himself to sit all the way up. His side screamed in protest, but he ignored it. _I have to get out!_

The paramedic placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, "Woah there, slow down, bud! You've got a couple of cracked ribs!" Izuku shook his head, getting onto his wobbly feet.

"I'm fine, really!" he said through gritted teeth. It hurt, but another medical bill was not something the foster home could afford. "I'll be going. Thanks for all the help."

The paramedic moved to stop Izuku, but he didn't have to do very much. As soon as Izuku opened the back door, he was met with the form of a very familiar hero and he froze on the spot when he noticed the tell-tale blonde spikes of hair.

"A-All Might?" Izuku blurted out, all of his worries trumped by the sheer power of shock. The hero seemed to have been in the middle of conversation with a detective, but he turned towards Izuku as soon as he heard his voice.

"Ah!" All Might turned away, facing Izuku fully. "You're up!"

"He shouldn't be…" The paramedic grumbled behind Izuku.

Izuku, however, was completely flabbergasted.

"Wha-how, when? Why is," he sputtered. "Why is All Might here?" He'd hoped to one day meet his hero. It was his dream to work with All Might as a hero one day, but still, the _last_ place he'd expected to see him was, well, _here._

All Might boomed with laughter and even that simple action seemed to resonate throughout the entire area. Izuku didn't even need to be pushed back into a sitting position by the paramedic. He fell down on his own, rather ungracefully.

"You did a good job dispelling that villain, young man," All Might said. "By the time I arrived on the scene, he'd already been...taken care of. Though, I caution you to be more careful about the surroundings in the future. Quite the damage you caused!" At this, All Might boomed with laughter again.

Izuku tilted his head, slightly recovered from the shock of seeing his hero, "Damage?'

All Might gestured for Izuku to stand, and he followed, ignoring the pain in his side. He stepped out of the metal confines of the ambulance and onto the very same street that the slime villain had caught up to him on.

The good news is that it looked like everyone had cleaned up the sludge. The bad news is that the entire area was in shambles. Entire streelamps were bent sideways, street signs were torn from the ground, and all the merchant stands had either been knocked over or broken, the nails scattered throughout the entire street. The concrete was cracked, and in places, the steel rebar stuck out of the ground like a broken bone poking out of someone's leg.

Izuku stared at the carnage in a mix of horror and awe.

 _I...did this?_ It didn't make sense. All he'd been able to do up until now was push a little bit on people's emotions, making them less likely to hurt him. Where did all this power come from? He was Quirkless! He had to be Quirkless! None of this made sense.

"That is some power, Young…" All Might paused. Izuku tore his gaze away from the street, looking up at the great hero. The older man was looking at Izuku expectantly.

 _My name! He's asking for my name!_ He realized.

"Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku." he said. He'd kept his mother's last name after she'd died; It wasn't like he knew who his real parents were anyways.

"Well, Young Midoriya, this is an impressive display of power, if I've ever seen one. Are you trying to enroll in any hero programs?"

Izuku nodded nervously. "The one at Yuuei, sir."

All Might smiled. "I believe you'll do fantastic."

Izuku's heart almost stopped. All Might, the symbol of peace, was telling him he could make it. He didn't know what to say, so he just stared back at the hero with a blank expression. All Might boomed with laugh once again.

"Well, I believe the ambulance can give you a ride home," All Might patted Izuku's shoulder. "I need to be going."

Izuku panicked. He couldn't get on the ambulance. They'd just charge him the medical bill. He'd never be able to pay it off.

"No, it's fine, I can walk!"

"Nonsense. You've been injured, the least we can do is help you out a little," All Might said, nudging Izuku towards the ambulance.

"No, seriously, I'm fine," Izuku said, trying to sidestep the large hero. When All Might didn't let him go by, Izuku felt for his Luck. There was a tiny bit left which didn't make sense considering he'd been out when the silme villain attacked, but he had some now which is what mattered.

Izuku nudged the last of his Luck onto All Might. Izuku saw the change in his facial features as they grew softer, less determined.

"I really can make my own way home," Izuku tried to push past All Might just as his Luck run out. All Might, to Izuku's surprise, still didn't let him go. Despite the emotional push, All Might hadn't been convinced.

"My boy, there's no harm in taking the easy way home," All Might said, his voice softer. He crouched down a little bit so that he was on eye level with Izuku. Izuku let out a defeated sigh. He was too emotionally unstable for this. He just wanted to get away, to crawl back to his room and hide.

"I can't afford it," Izuku whispered, voice barely carrying to All Might's ears. The hero looked between Izuku and the ambulance, realization dawning on his face. The hero stood, waving the paramedic over.

"If there is any charge for his treatment, pull it directly from my pay for 'stopping' this incident. The boy was the one that really did the work, and he needs it more than I," All Might said. The paramedic nodded in understanding.

Izuku gaped at All Might. Nobody was that generous. Nobody would give up that, especially for someone like Izuku.

Nobody except for All Might.

"Now, I really must be going," All Might said, crouching. When he left the ground, a burst of wind followed him and Izuku watched the hero fly away for a few moments before turning to the paramedic.

"We'll get you bandaged up and back home, buddy." The paramedic waved Izuku forwards. This time, he followed.

* * *

As soon as Izuku walked in the doors of the orphanage, there were at least three pairs of arms wrapping around him affectionately.

"Izu!" One of the foster children screamed, grabbing onto his left leg. Her name was Akira, only four years old. Almost the same age Izuku was when he first came to the orphanage.

"Izukkun! I saw you on TV!" Another child screamed from the couch. "You were saved by All Might!" Izuku let out a breath. Apparently the news had arrived on scene only _after_ Izuku had destroyed the area, and they all presumed it had been All Might who caused the carnage.

Izuku set down his bag, sitting down at the table. Akira was still attached to his leg, and seemed to be refusing to let go.

"Good evening, Izuku," said Miss Sakura, the caretaker of the foster home. "I'm glad you're okay." She walked over and set down a bowl of rice and chicken.

 _Seems I missed dinner._

Izuku gave her a smile back. "I'm glad I'm okay, too. Didn't come away without some damage, though." He lifted his shirt, revealing the bandages wrapped around his abdomen. Miss Sakura gazed at the bandages before letting out a sigh.

"Izuku, are you really planning on going for the hero course?" Miss Sakura asked, blunt as ever. She didn't sugarcoat anything she said, not even to spare a child's feelings. With raising over ten children at a time, she didn't have time to play with formalities.

They'd also had this conversation before.

"Yes, Miss Sakura," Izuku said, a hint of exasperation in his voice. One would think it harsh not to comfort Izuku after the villain attack, but Miss Sakura wasn't that type of person. She was more...practical than that. She probably saw that he'd been the victim of a villain attack and thought to use it as a tool to pressure him into staying away from the hero course.

Little did she know, this night had done the opposite of discourage him. He was more encouraged than ever to get into Yuuei's hero course. Not only did All Might have faith in him, but he'd _personally_ defeated a villain.

Most importantly, he'd figured out that there was far more to his abilities than he'd originally thought, that was the most urgent thing to figure out. He needed to find out how his abilities worked, what he could do with them, and most importantly, how he could keep it secret.

"Izuku, are you sure?" Sakura pressed, her tone sharp but filled with concern. "After today, and with your Quirklessness..." She trailed off.

"My Quirklessness won't stop me from trying," Izuku said, taking his bowl of food from the table. "Thank you for the food."

Izuku patted Akira on the head and she released herself from his leg, at which point he walked up the stairs to his room, spooning the rice and chicken into his mouth as he walked. The silverware was old, used for years, and considering its age, it wouldn't be far fetched that it was pewter or steel. They used to make silverware utensils out of those metals nefore the world switched over to aluminum.

Izuku shrugged the thought as he turned around and shut his door behind him, heading to his desk and pulling out his laptop from his backpack. Even though he had hoped otherwise, the computer was completely broken - the screen shattered. If his sudden manipulation of the metal in the area hadn't broken it, him being thrown around like a ragdoll did.

Izuku scowled. That laptop had been not only expensive, but he'd been lucky to get it in the first place. It was his main source of hero research, and now it was completely useless. With a heavy sigh, he placed the broken computer on his desk and sunk into his chair. He knew he should be getting to sleep; he'd had a long and hard day and he needed to rest. Yet, he couldn't find the motivation to crawl in bed and sleep. Not with so much on his mind, and definitely not with so much to do.

He needed to understand his power, that was the first step. Whatever his power was, it was dangerous, that much was evident. It could also be his ticket into Yuuei. He needed to figure out how his abilities worked and quickly.

 _Honestly, I'm stupid for ignoring it for so long._

Still, he had no idea how to start, and he _did_ need sleep. With a sigh, Izuku took off his clothes, being careful not to stretch his side unnecessarily, and clambered into bed. With one last attempt before closing his eyes, Izuku felt for his Luck once again. As he suspected, he found nothing, but that didn't stop him from getting disappointed.

Izuku let out a huff and rolled over onto his uninjured side. He drifted into sleep quickly, his tired body needing the rest.

* * *

 _So for now, know this: Izuku's 'Quirk' Shouldn't make sense for now. If you're confused, don't worry, that's intentional._

 _Inspired by the "Mistborn" fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson_

EDIT: Updated and proofread on 5/24/2020


	2. Chapter 2: Metal

**Chapter 2: Metal**

* * *

Izuku woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in his bed. He tried to breathe, but the air came in shallow, quick bursts and his hands were clammy, all of his extremities feeling exceptionally cold. Izuku swung his feet out from under his covers, sensing that something was _very_ wrong.

As soon as he tried to stand, a sudden wave of dizziness caused him to fall to his knees, the loose wooden floor resounding with a _bang_ from his fall. The world spun around Izuku as he tried to calm himself down. Eventually, the dizziness went away and his vision cleared, only for a piercing headache to come in its stead.

Izuku heard rustling from outside of his room and a moment later, the door burst open, revealing Miss Sakura in her nightgown. Izuku tried to use his bed stand to pull himself off of the floor, but his legs felt exceptionally weak and were unable to support his weight.

"Izuku, are you okay? I heard a bang," Miss Sakura said, taking a step further into his dark room.

"I'm - " Izuku grunted, attempting to pull himself into a standing position. "I'm okay. I just fell out of bed."

His body betrayed his words as another wave of exhaustion washed over him and he lost his grip on the bedpost. Izuku leaned over on the ground, head spinning. He barely registered Miss Sakura hurrying towards him in a panic before his vision faded to black.

* * *

When Izuku woke up, he was in the hospital, the one place he'd not wanted to be the day previous. Now, he was stuck in a familiar set of white sheets and baby blue hospital gown. Izuku tried to sit up, but stopped as soon as he noticed the IV hooked up to his forearm.

They had him on a saline drip.

"Oh, look, just in time!" a voice called, the door to his room sliding open. A tall man walked in, wearing a white coat, smiling broadly. He'd said it like it had been convenient timing, but Izuku had a feeling he'd been waiting outside of Izuku's room for a while, just waiting for the right moment to walk in. "How are we feeling?"

Izuku groaned. "Tired," he said truthfully. Whatever had happened, he felt exceptionally exhaused, like he could just lay down for a few hours and take a long nap, even though he'd just woken up.

The doctor laughed. "It's to be expected from a person with iron deficiency anemia." Izuku frowned, tilting his head. He'd expected it to be something to do with how his "powers" had acted up earlier that day, not something so...mundane.

The doctor must have read the look in Izuku's eyes, because he continued: "Iron deficiency anemia is what happens when you don't have enough iron in your body. Without iron, your body can't - "

"Make the hemoglobin required to move oxygen in the blood," Izuku finished.

The doctor nodded, seemingly glossing over Izuku's interruption. Some people would have taken it as rude, cutting off an expert like that, but to his credit, the man appeared unfazed.

"We found that your body was almost completely out of iron. The only amount that existed within your body was that which was already contained within hemoglobin. This is especially odd, as you would've felt some sort of effect from a lack of iron far before it got to this point. So, tell me, in the last few days, perhaps weeks, have you regularly had headaches, shortness of breath, abnormal fevers, or exhaustion that doesn't seem to go away?"

Izuku thought for a moment. None of the symptoms sounded familiar, so he shook his head. "I've been feeling pretty good, actually." The doctor frowned in response, scribbling something on his clipboard.

"The only other thing that I can think of is that it could be a side effect of a Quirk. Do you have a Quirk that may be responsible for using up the iron in your body?"

Izuku's mind flashed to the run-in with the sludge villain, how all the metal on the entire street had been displaced with enough force to crack concrete, drawn towards a singular point. He remembered how everything one the entire the street had been destroyed, just by a few mere moments of power.

"I'm Quirkless," Izuku said. However all of this related, however it all fit together, he needed to figure it out himself - his Luck, the sludge villain incident, and now the fact that he was _completely out of iron_ in his body, they were all related. They _had_ to be.

The doctor sighed. "Well, we're going to keep you for twenty-four hours in order to ensure that there aren't any lasting effects. We've given you some emergency iron supplements for the moment, and you'll need to continue taking iron supplements for the next few weeks." The doctor said. Izuku frowned this time. He didn't like the idea of staying in a hospital for so long - he'd had enough time in a hospital for a lifetime - not to mention missing school, but it couldn't be helped.

The doctor turned to leave, nodding to Izuku as he did so, "There will be a nurse around to check on you every couple of hours. For now, it's the middle of the night and I'm in dire need of sleep." the doctor slid open the glass door to Izuku's hospital room.

"Wait!" Izuku said, realizing something. The doctor stopped in his tracks, turning back to look at Izuku, who picked at his fingernails nervously. Finally, he spoke softly, "I don't have the money to pay for this hospital visit…"

The doctor looked at him for a moment, before breaking into laughter. "You didn't know? A few hours ago, the hospital received word that a local hero agency would be paying for your hospital bills in the case that you needed to come in within a day or two. I don't know what you did to get a hero agency's eye, kid, but someone's got you covered." With that the doctor left, sliding the door shut.

 _All Might,_ Izuku remembered. He'd said that he'd be paying for Izuku's hospital bills related to the incident - but was the iron deficiency related to the slime villain attack, or was it some sort of crazy coincidence? Either way, Izuku needed to thank All Might the next time he saw him.

 _If I ever see him again…_ he reminded himself, slouching back into his hospital bed.

It wasn't very long before he let the alluring pull of sleep take him over and all faded to black.

* * *

The next day in the hospital went by without a problem. Miss Sakura brought nearly the entirety of the foster home to visit him, the onslaught of children nearly knocking Izuku's IV out of his arm when they'd attacked him with their hugs, but he appreciated it. They practically idolized Izuku, even though he sometimes felt he didn't deserve it. He was Quirkless and never did anything of note, but they looked up for him for the simple fact that he was the oldest. That was also another reason that he hated going to the hospital: if the children who looked up to him saw him in such a feeble state, they might realize how normal he really was.

The children stayed around for a little while before Miss Sakura had to take them to school, but in that time, Izuku got to read them a couple of storybooks, as well as tell them about the previous days' hero news. Usually, he talked about the most recent happenings of the hero world, but he hadn't gotten around to catching up since, well, the sludge villain incident.

Luckily, Miss Sakura had concluded that his anemia was completely separate from the villain attack. Of course, she wouldn't have any reason to see them as related to begin with, but Izuku was a bit paranoid. Nobody knew about his Luck, and up until yesterday, nobody else had known that he was anything but Quirkless. Now, the only people that knew he was something else were the people on that street when the villain attacked.

Eventually, Izuku was discharged early after showing no signs of his condition worsening. They'd said originally that he was going to be kept around for a day, but he wasn't complaining about being out early.

As Izuku walked out of the hospital, he glanced at the clock on the receptionist's desk, who waved him farewell with a smile.

 _It's noon. I've already missed school, and there's no point in showing up late, so I may as well use this time to my advantage,_ Izuku thought. He didn't have a smartphone to call Miss Sakura, so he'd have to make do with what he had, which, to be fair, was practically nothing.

He had his wallet, his clothes, and knowledge of the Musutafu streets and public transportation. With a sigh, Izuku set off at a brisk walk towards the nearest bus stop. While the buses were good enough, the light rail would have been a significantly faster way to head straight home.

Izuku didn't take the light rail.

The first place he went was to the nearest appliance store. If he was going to figure out what exactly his power _was_ , he was going to need access to the internet. Since going to a public library wasn't exactly an option, that meant he was going to need a laptop.

Walking into the electronics store was almost a surreal experience for Izuku. Seeing all of the different computers and computer accessories (most of which were vastly out of his price range) was overwhelming, but at least the staff were helpful and accommodating, so less than half an hour later, Izuku walked out with a refurbished, bare-bones laptop. All in all it had costed him was about ten thousand yen.

Izuku barely even gave Miss Sakura a greeting as he ran straight to his room as soon as he got back home. He crashed into his desk chair and pulled out his new computer and a hero notebook.

 _Okay,_ Izuku thought to himself, _What's the first step to figuring out how this power works when I barely have a lead?_ It seemed overwhelming at first. There were so many things that Quirks depended upon that narrowing it down to one, simple thing could be next to impossible. People often went through most of their lives without knowing exactly how their Quirk functioned.

So far, he'd seen a pattern with his powers. Whenever he used his Luck, he tapped into some sort of reserve. It didn't feel like a part of his mind, rather, more like another muscle. Much ilke how you don't have to actively think about moving your arm to pick something up, he didn't have to actively think about tapping into the well of power. He just...did it.

The thing about his Luck is that while he would only sometimes actually _have_ any to use, the reserve was always there. Even if it was empty, he could always sense it in the back of his mind.

"So it's only sometimes there, but I can feel the reserve all the time…" Izuku muttered as he scribbled notes in is notebook. "It sounds like...an engine." Izuku bit onto the end of his pencil, nibbling on the brass cap that held the eraser to the wooden pencil itself. It was a bad habit he'd fallen into.

Engines worked off of fuel. When the gasoline was there, the engine could run, and when the gasoline ran out, the engine would shut off, but the tank that held the fuel still existed. When the tank was filled up again, the engine could run again.

 _But if it's based off of fuel, then what's the fuel? How to I refuel?_ Izuku shook his head. _So many questions._

Izuku wrote down a list of possible things that could work, and began gathering the materials needed to test each theory. He tried all sorts of things with water and food first. A lot of Quirks that work off of a fuel system are based in some sort of food or water consumption, so he ran through all the possibilities: eating food, drinking water, taking a shower to cover himself in water, seeing if it was somehow related to the lipids in his body, but all to no avail. Nothing seemed to refuel his Luck.

So Izuku kept testing. Everything from eating salt to eating sugar to eating copious amounts of fruits. He tried everything he could think of that would be "fuel", but nothing seemed to work.

Defeated, Izuku crashed back into his desk chair, disappointedly crossing out his most recent list of ideas. He was running out of leads at this point. Perhaps he was mistaken and it wasn't based off of fuel? Maybe his stock was regenerated by something else?

Izuku leaned back in his chair, nibbling on the end of his pencil once again, thinking.

 _Ideas, ideas, ideas! What else could it be?_ Izuku thought back on all the times he'd used his Luck. _At school to get Kacchan off of me, sometimes with Miss Sakura, sometimes with the children to make them calm down...then..._ Izuku stopped.

"How could I forget!" he berated himself, slapping his own wrist, "I'm so stupid!" he picked up his pen and flipped to a new page. The sludge villain incident and aftermath had one thing in common. One thing he'd completely glossed over in his initial search: metal.

Somehow, metal had to be involved. Between the metal being attracted to him during the villain attack itself and Izuku's entire visit to the hospital for iron deficiency anemia right after, it all had something to do with _metal._

Izuku ran through an entire new list of ideas. Maybe he could only activate it when he was touching metal. Maybe it had to do with how much metal was nearby. Smiling, Izuku set to work, all of his new ideas renewing his vigor.

Of course, that made it all the more disheartening when he got stumped a few hours later, every single lead turning up dead. WIth a frustrated grunt, Izuku crashed into his seat for the third time in the last few hours, completely out of ideas. He raised the pencil to his mouth and began biting on it once again, this time more out of anger than anything else.

"Ugh!" he groaned, leaning back. All of his leads were dead and he had no idea where to go next. He couldn't exactly go to a Quirk expert, as they'd just take one look at his file and tell him he's Quirkless. He couldn't ask for help without accidentally revealing his powers that he wanted to remain as secret, and he couldn't figure it out on his own. He was stuck in a corner with nowhere to go. In a bout of childish anger, Izuku bit down as hard as he could.

The brass end of the pencil snapped off from the force of his bite, disconnecting from the rest of the pencil inside of Izuku's mouth. The little metal tip must have had at least a little launch velocity, as it went sailing directly down his throat.

Izuku sat up, hacking and coughing at the sudden surprise of accidentially swallowing a _penil end_. Luckily, he hadn't inhaled it, he didn't need _another_ hospital visit. Even as he coughed,, he heard Miss Sakura's footsteps coming closer and mere moments before the door came slamming open. "Izuku, are you alright?"

Izuku nodded, giving her a thumbs up, "Water just went down the wrong pipe," He said, gesturing to the half filled up cup on his desk from one of his earlier tests. Miss Sakura eyed him and then the cup.

"Are you sure? It's not related to the hospital?" She said suspiciously. Izuku just shook his head in response.

"I'm fine, I swear," Izuku said again, a bit exasperated. Instinctually, Izuku reached for his Luck to give Miss Sakura the nudge she needed to leave him alone again. He reached to tap into the reserve before he even knew if it was there or not.

Miss Sakura turned away just in time to miss Izuku's expression of pure shock. His reserve of Luck...it was massive. Hundreds of times bigger than anything he'd ever used before. Somehow, he'd filled up his stock, and he'd filled it up _a lot._ Izuku frantically searched within his mind for what had elapsed in the last couple of minutes that could possibly give him a hint.

 _I sat back down, wrote in my notebook a bit, bit off the end of my pencil and swallowed-_ \- Izuku stopped, and everything _clicked_. The fuel source, the metal, it all made sense.

Metal _was_ the fuel source.

He'd accidentally swallowed the end of his pencil and the cap had been made out of brass. The brass was the fuel source for his Luck, which meant that in order to power his abilities, he needed to _swallow_ metal.

Izuku looked around the room, searching for another pencil to test his hypothesis. He grabbed an extra writing utensil and removed the eraser cap from the end, leaving only the brass fashioned to connect eraser to pencil. He eyed the little chunk, compressing it into as small of a ball as he could get it. _Moment of truth_ he thought, popping it into his mouth. With some effort, Izuku swallowed the brass bit and reached for his reserve of Luck again.

Sure enough, the reserve was even larger. A massive grin grew on Izuku's face. He'd done it! He'd solved his abilities! He could eat metal and use it as a fuel source for his powers: the more metal, the more fuel he had.

"Yes!" Izuku cheered, jumping up into the air. All it had taken was a few hours of blind testing until a random coincidence had solved it all for him. He'd taken the first step towards his goal of understanding his powers.

Now, the only step left was to figure out all of the rest.

* * *

Izuku wrote down a plethora of ideas about the possible implications of his discovery. What he'd been calling "Luck" was actually brass. He'd gotten a little bit of brass at a time from the metal shavings from chewing on the ends of his pencils, or at least, that was his running theory.

The next step was to get a grasp of his powers; he knew that there must be other metals than brass out there he could use, evidenced by the carnage he'd caused on the street. Though the idea of figuring out what metals produced what effects was tempting, it was probably a better idea to get a grasp of what he knew worked first, get a feel for the basics, _then_ move onto others.

So, Izuku procedurally removed the caps of an entire pack of pencils and stuffed them into his pocket, just in case he ran out of metal with with the two brass pencil caps already in his stomach. Izuku grabbed his backpack and headed downstairs to initiate the first step of his plan: get some spending money. He'd need to buy some metals to try out and he'd used up almost all of his spare change on buying a new laptop.

"Good afternoon!" Izuku chirped, strutting into the kitchen and to sit at the kitchen table. Miss Sakura looked over at him from the couch, a look of mild surprise on her face.

"You look like you're feeling better," she said with a grunt, turning back to the TV. She was probably watching some old soap opera with horrendous acting, a fact she seemed to be especially interested in.

"I am, I think," Izuku said. "Those iron pills finally set in."

Miss Sakura snorted, "You'd better be feeling better, you ate just about half of my pantry. I'll need to go to the store because of you." Izuku scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Sorry, I was hungry." it wasn't entirely a lie, he _had_ been hungry at the time. He just ate _far_ more than he normally would in pursuit of finding the fuel source for his powers, not that it mattered in the end because it turned out that he was a human scrap metal recycler.

Silence fell between Izuku and Miss Sakura for a few moments, Miss Sakura on watching her show and Izuku trepidatious about using his powers properly for the first time. He'd used brass in tiny amounts before, but this was going to be the first time that he _really used_ brass.

"So," Izuku said, breaking the silence. "I was wondering...could I get some spending money…" he tapped into the massive reserve, using the tiniest amounts of brass, about the same amount he would have used when his reserve was a mere fraction of what it was now.

Miss Sakura looked over at Izuku again. "Don't you have your own money?"

 _At least she didn't outright deny me,_ Izuku thought, _That's a start._

"I had to use it to buy a new laptop. Mine broke yesterday," Izuku said, pushing a little harder. He knew that he wasn't very refined with his...manipulation, but he'd become more adept with time. He felt a warm feeling from in his chest and he noticed Miss Sakura's posture slump a little, as if she was becoming more relaxed. Izuku urged for her to become more believing, less skeptical.

"Well…" She put her hand to her chin. "What do you need to use it for?"

Izuku stopped. He hadn't thought up a lie to tell her if she asked. Still, he was getting somewhere. Izuku had asked for money many times in his years living at the foster home, and he'd never actually been successful, he'd never even really made it this far. Usually the response was a quick and finite 'no'.

He tried pushing a bit harder with brass. He felt his reserve shrinking quicker, probably due to the intensity at which he was using it, and the warm feeling in his chest spread a little.

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Miss Sakura finally said, shifting on the couch and grabbing her purse. Izuku didn't let up on the brass until Miss Sakura produced a few 1,000 yen bills and handed them to him, at which point the boy frantically shoved them into his pocket, grabbing his bag and heading for the door.

"Thank you!" He called, cutting off the flow of brass.

"You're welcome…" Miss Sakura trailed off as Izuku shut the door behind him, walking off in an excited hurry.

"It worked!" He practically yelled, skipping down the street. He drew eyes from other people, but for once in his life, he didn't care that other people were looking at him. He headed straight for the nearest hardware shop.

* * *

Izuku checked his brass. In that one short encounter, he'd used up nearly three quarters of his storage.

 _So, the more intense of an effect I want to produce, the more metal it uses...interesting_. Izuku grabbed another two pencil caps from his pocket and pressed them into as small of balls as possible, then - with a little mental preparation - he put the pieces in his mouth and swallowed. They were a bit hard to get down, but he felt his reserve replenish to a comfortable amount.

 _I'm going to need something to help those go down easier...water, maybe?_ Izuku thought, continuing his walk to the bus stop.

Izuku needed to figure out exactly what the limitations of brass were. He suspected it had something to do with emotions, but that didn't quite make sense. While anger - what he typically suppressed with Bakugo - was an emotion, suspiciousness was more of a state of mind. He hadn't made Miss Sakura less angry, he'd just made her less weary and more open to his suggestions. Did that mean he could suppress anything?

He needed to test his theories. The problem was, it wasn't exactly easy to tell how someone was feeling or thinking without outright asking them, and he suspected walking up to someone and saying, "So, just wondering, are you feeling any less sad at the moment?" wouldn't go over well.

So, he needed another way to test, some way that he could see the results of his Quirk in real time, all while also maintaining secrecy.

The squealing sound of a bus rolling to a halt and the sounds of air compressors releasing drew Izuku from his thoughts. He climbed onboard, scanning his transit pass and sitting down in the seat just adjacent to the door. Izuku looked over the other passengers, each occupied in their own ways. A woman was reading a book a few seats over, and a man stared out of the window on the other side aisle, a few seats in front of and a small family with three rowdy children.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind. He could test each of his theories by discreetly observing the other passengers as he used brass! Izuku sat a little straighter in his seat. It was probably an invasion of privacy to use brass like this, but at this point he didn't care. He needed answers.

 _Okay, first theory,_ _can I target specific emotions or feelings?_ Izuku looked over the passengers of the bus once more. Eventually, Izuku chose a target, one of the children of the family on the other side of the bus. This one was particularly rowdy, unable to sit still in their seat and constantly nagging their mother.

 _If this works, then I might be helping her out…_ Izuku thought, chuckling to himself. Hesitantly, he turned on his brass, letting it simmer slightly as he felt his chest get a little warm. Hesitantly, he reached out towards the child. Usually when children were rowdy, it was because they're bored, so the reason the most likely reason the little boy was attempting to climb on his mother's shoulders was simply that he wanted something to do.

Izuku directed his brass towards the kid, thinking _specifically_ about getting rid of the kid's sense of boredom. He started off softly, and when the child didn't seem to react much, Izuku doubled his efforts, pushing a little harder. If brass could be compared to the gas pedal on a car, he wasn't exactly flooring it, but he also wasn't letting it coast.

Izuku saw the fruits of his labor when the kid eventually stopped squirming. He just sank down in his chair, staring at the ground. Izuku smiled. _Now time for the second theory._

 _If I use brass on someone, does it stay, or do they just go back to how they were feeling beforehand?_ Izuku let up and he felt the warmth in his chest retreat. The child didn't move for a bit, but when he finally did, it was to begin swinging his legs back and forth in the seat. A few minutes later, the kid was back to squirming. Izuku leaned back in thought.

 _That could mean two different things. Either he no longer felt bored but went back to being bored, or brass's effect faded with time_. Either way, the kid didn't seem to be acting suspicious of anything, or at the very least, that's what Izuku thought. You could only tell so much with a child.

Izuku decided to move on from the kid to test his third and final theory for brass.

 _If I -_ Izuku was torn from his thoughts by the bus screeching to a halt. He looked up at the stop number, only to realize that it was his time to get off. With a sigh, he stood up. _Next time, I suppose._

* * *

Izuku walked into the hardware store and the bell attached to the door rang to signal his entrance, its high-pitched ring echoing around the empty store.

"Welcome, how may I help you?" The man behind the counter greeted with a large smile. He was tall, had blonde hair, and looked to be in his mid-thirdies. Izuku suppressed the urge to turn right back around and leave because he knew that the man was only trying to help.

"Hi, umm…" Izuku paused. "I'm looking for metal." The man tilted his head.

"Metal?" he eventually prompted when Izuku didn't elaborate.

"Oh, uhh, small ingots maybe? Anything I can turn into small bits, really," Izuku said. He probably could've found it all on his own, but backing out now would only make him seem even more socially awkward.

"Well," the employee said, scrolling through the computer, "You may find something on aisle six. Otherwise, we might need to work something else out, we've been a bit stripped for resources lately."

A nod. "Thank you."

Izuku walked down aisle six, looking at the contents of the shelves. It had various tools that he presumed were typically used for woodworking - sawblades, sandpaper, the like - on one side, and on the other, there seemed to be different assorted screws and bolts. At the very end of the aisle, however, was exactly what Izuku was looking for.

Pouches of shaved metal filings, or at least, that was what he thought was _supposed_ to be there. The entire rack was cleared out except for a few pouches stacked on top of each other. Izuku grabbed one of them, reading the label.

It was just a bags of tin flakes. Izuku looked down the aisle, seeing if there was some sort of mistake.

 _Well, I suppose he did say they've been stripped for resources lately…_ Izuku thought, taking three pouches of the tin.

Izuku got to the front of the store with the bags, slightly disappointed. He'd come to try to get a variety of metals to try and test, but all he was going to walk out was a single type. Begrudgingly, Izuku set the pouches down on the counter.

"So, what're all these for?" the cashier asked as he scanned each of the pouches.

Izuku paused. "School project," he said simply. The cashier raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of school project?" Izuku snapped his mouth shut. He didn't have a good explanation in mind, so instead he reached out with brass, targeting the man's suspicion. He _pushed_ on the emotion, suppressing it as much as possible. Izuku felt the warmth in his chest well up.

"Well," The man said sighed, "I suppose it doesn't matter, now does it?" he smiled, and Izuku smiled in return, letting up a little. He didn't want to run through all of his reserve before he was back home.

"Say, what's your name?" He asked.

Izuku normally wouldn't have responded, he would've just looked down at the floor and dodged the question. Yet, for some reason, he suddenly felt especially trustworthy of this person. They were just a store clerk, what was the harm in letting him know?

"My name is Midoriya Izuku," he said, and as soon as he did, he felt an itch to bite his tongue to keep himself from talking again.

"Are you interested in chemistry and metallurgy?" the clerk asked.

"Something like that," Izuku nodded. It wasn't exactly far off from the truth.

The man gave Izuku the bag, smiling, "Well, Izuku, here you go."

Izuku frowned. The man was friendly, sure, but most people didn't just jump straight to using first names. Izuku shook his head, brushing it off. The man didn't exactly look Japanese; his skin was too pale and his eyes were too big, much like Izuku's own. He probably just wasn't fluent with the culture, though his Japanese seemed as practiced as could be despite his thick accent.

As Izuku grabbed the bag, he noticed something odd. The man was wearing long sleeves, with the shirt tucked into white gloves, completely covering his forearms. Normally that wouldn't be very peculiar, but it was summertime. Nobody in their right mind wore long sleeves when it was so hot outside unless they were begging sweat their balls off. Shaking his thoughts, Izuku reached for his wallet.

"So," Izuku said as he handed the man his money, "Do you know when the store is going to get more of those types of metal shavings? I'm looking for as many different types as possible so I can do tests for my...project."

"Well, I don't know when exactly, but I could have the store send you a notice when they're back in, if you'd like." Izuku nodded, and the man began typing on the computer. After a few moments, however, he stopped.

"Say," the man said, turning his attention back to Izuku, "I work a side job at a metal processing plant. We get a lot of scraps and shavings that we normally just throw away. I could just send them to you, if you want."

Izuku would normally never actually accept the offer; he didn't like taking handouts, especially from strangers. Yet, for some reason, he felt abnormally calm when the man asked him. He even felt compelled to take the offer immediately.

"Well, would it cost me anything?"

The man shook his head. "Free of charge. All I'd need to know is where to send it to."

 _It could solve my metals problem._ Izuku reasoned. _And it would save me money._

"Well, if you're offering..." he said eventually, deciding to trust the man.

He smiled. "Great!" Izuku gave the man the address to the foster home. Oddly, he didn't actually write it down anywhere.

 _How was he going to remember the address?_ Izuku shook his thoughts clear, deciding that part didn't matter.

The clerk gave Izuku his change and a big smile, at which point the boy turned to leave.

"Before you head out…" Izuku heard the clerk call, so he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Try to smile a bit more, okay?" Izuku blinked.

 _What an odd thing to say…_ In response, Izuku flashed the man a smile before turning to leave.

* * *

As Izuku walked from the bus stop back to the foster home, he realized something. For some reason, 'turning on his brass' didn't seem to fit as a phrase to describe his powers, as it didn't really feel like actually turning it on. It wasn't like flicking a light switch, but rather more like using a muscle. He could change the amount that he wanted to use and how much of an effect he wanted to draw out.

Izuku let his brass simmer softly and the warm feeling returned. He revelled in the feeling because it just felt...right, like he finally had a part of him that he'd been missing for a long time. He smiled, letting himself sink into the warmth. It wasn't actually warming him up, that's not how thermodynamics worked, it just gave him an impression of heat.

Izuku ran through possible ideas for how to refer to it, at least for his own sake.

 _Use it? No, that's too generic...flex it? No, that doesn't make sense…_ Izuku trailed off, watching one of the cars go by on the street.

What was it he'd compared his abilities to? An engine? Engines burned gasoline for fuel. If Izuku's power was an engine, and metal was his fuel source, did that mean he was burning metals?

 _That...actually has a nice ring to it…_ Izuku realized. It also helped serve to explain the warm feeling he had whenever he had a metal on. _Burning metals…I like it._

* * *

 _Before I go, I actually have one thing to address. Someone asked me if they can make a piece of art based on this series, which is 1. baffling, there's only been one chapter so far, and 2. exciting, there's only been one chapter so far and people are already asking to make art? So the answer is: Absolutley. Even feel free to tag/message me on tumblr about it (literally only made a tumblr like a month ago). Anyhow, that'll be it from me, See ya'll in two weeks!_


	3. Chapter 3: Tin

**Chapter 3: Tin**

* * *

As Izuku made the trek back to the foster home, he made an executive decision. Brass may be relatively harmless, but he knew from experience that something, some metal, had destroyed an entire city street.

He needed to make sure that when he burned any metal for the first time that he wasn't anywhere that he could accidentally hurt somebody, which included the tin he carried in his pocket. Even if it turned out to be a dud, it was worth being safe.

Izuku turned down the street and saw the foster home down the road. It was a small town-house squished between a few other houses that looked nearly identical. The first thing he did when he got inside wasn't actually to go straight to his room. Before he did that, he needed to test his last theory regarding brass.

 _Can people that I use brass on know that their emotions had been tampered with?_

Izuku walked into the kitchen, noting that Miss Sakura was sitting in the same spot that she'd been when he left a few hours prior, the only difference being, this time, there were a swarm of other foster children running around. They were so loud that they could rival even the loudest of metal bands in terms of sheer sound volume.

 _Doesn't Bakugo listen to metal? He seems like the type to,_ Izuku thought absentmindedly as he shut the door behind him. With a sigh, he took a seat on the table, leaving his bag of metals stashed in his coat pocket.

"You didn't go straight to your room, I'm surprised," Miss Sakura said, not looking away from the television. Izuku sat quietly for a moment, pondering how to approach the conversation..

He cleared his throat. "I was just wondering, why did you lend me money today? You've never done that before," he asked.

Miss Sakura actually snorted. "I was just feeling a little generous is all. It's probably because of all this hospital business, don't think too hard about it." Izuku let out a sigh of relief. She didn't seem to be suspicious of her emotions being tampered with, so he got up, making his leave.

As soon as he got to his room, Izuku crashed onto his bed, completely mentally exhausted. With a groan, he rolled over in place, noticing but not caring that the blankets were getting twisted around his legs. He let his hand rest on the pouches of tin stuffed in his pocket as he stared at the ceiling.

As bad as he wanted to take a glass of water and send the tin down the hatch, he knew that he needed to wait. Something, one of the metals that he could burn, had the firepower to decimate a public street. If tin was that metal…

Izuku's mind flashed to the image of the metal rebar sticking out of the concrete, then all the other foster children.

 _I need to make sure that I don't put anyone else in danger. I need to figure these things out somewhere else._ So long as he was unsure about any portion of a metal's function, he refused to endanger anyone else.

Turning over in his bed, Izuku closed his eyes.

* * *

Izuku woke up from his short nap to the sound of his alarm going off. He'd made the decision to sleep until midnight, just to get in a few extra hours of sleep. He still had school the next day, afterall, and if he was going to be out all night, he didn't want to come in the next day with bags under his eyes.

He slipped on sweatpants, some shoes, and then a hoodie after checking the weather and discovering that it was going to be on the chillier side, despite being summertime. While he was grabbing his sweatshirt, his eyes lingered on a cloak that hung from a hangar inside his closet.

The cloak was a black cloth at the top, adorned with a hood and a drawstring. As the article got longer, it split off into numerous black and grey tassels, all of which faded to a light grey, foggy color at the bottom. It was one of the few things he kept from his childhood.

It was the very cloak that he'd been wrapped in when his parents had found him on their doorstep all those years ago. Not a blanket, not a towel, but a cloak, and a very odd looking one at that. Izuku had no idea who'd left him on that step, but whoever it was, it seemed like that particular choice was significant in some way, which was why Izuku couldn't find it within himself to get rid of it. It was important to at least _someone_.

Izuku shut his closet door and made for the staircase that led downstairs. As he crept down, he put extra effort into avoiding the creaky spots, many of which he'd become familiar with after few midnight escapades to the kitchen for a drink of water, so he made it to the bottom floor without a sound. Then, he slowly creaked the door open, and the moment he did, a thin white fog flowed inside, evaporating as it reached the light. Izuku frowned. It was the middle of the summer, sure, but he hadn't seen anything in the forecast about it being foggy.

Izuku stuck his head out the door and looked out onto the street outside, only able to see the soft yellow light of street lamps shining through the fog and the occasional passing of a car's headlights. He felt a foreboding chill run down his spine as he stepped outside, softly closing the door behind him.

 _It's just water vapor_ , he reminded himself. By all rights, he shouldn't have a problem with, but for some reason, as the white fog coiled off of his skin, Izuku couldn't help but feel like it was sort of... _alive._

Izuku shook his thoughts clear, straightening out his hoodie. _Now, where do I go?_ he thought. _I need somewhere that I won't need to worry about accidentally hurting someone..._ it didn't take long for the area to come to mind.

The location in question wasn't very far away. In fact, he'd walked there many times before, as it was a good place to go when he wanted to be alone. If not for the mist obscuring his vision, Izuku knew the mounds of trash would've been visible from blocks away.

The Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, once a clean, open waterside lounging area, was one of the 'ugly' parts of town. Over time, it had accumulated piles upon piles of trash, rendered into an illegal dumping zone and home to its fair share of drug dealers.

It was a shame that such beautiful public space had been rendered useless, but it also meant something good for Izuku: he had a place to practice his Quirk where he wouldn't be in danger of hurting anyone else.

When he finally got to the beach, he hopped over the wall, working his way over the plies of trash. Eventually, he found the spot he was looking for, a small clearing of clean sand in the midst of mounds of trash. The mountains of rubbish would hide him from any onlookers, so there was a low chance of being found, especially considering how the thick fog obscured anybody's sight for any distance further than a few meters, and the valley was just big enough that he could comfortably move around.

"Alright, here we go," he said, sitting down and taking the tin and his water bottle out of his pocket, setting them down in the sand. Izuku looked up and down at the materials, then around himself to check that he was alone, then back at the materials again.

 _What're you waiting for?_ he scolded himself, grabbing the tin and taking a pinch of it. He put the metal flakes on his tongue, then washed it down with a big gulp of water.

Reaching inside, Izuku looked for any other sources of…

 _Woah…_ Izuku thought. When he'd swallowed the pencil tips, there'd been one distinct power source inside of him, of which there were now two. One was the brass from the pencil caps he'd swallowed earlier. The other was completely unfamiliar to him. Closing his eyes, he focused on the new well of power, feeling that it was...sharper than brass, in a way.

 _Here goes nothing._ Izuku thought. The instant he started burning the tin, everything around him seemed to erupt. The soft sound of the waves on the beach rolling in was elevated to a roaring noise in his ears and the soft glow of moonlight became almost blindingly bright, shining through the mist like a second sun. In a panic, Izuku cut off the metal and everything went back to normal.

"What the hell was that?" he mumbled to himself, trying to clear his head. Of all the things he'd anticipated to happen - blow one of the mountains of scrap away, maybe - whatever _that_ had been wasn't on his list.

Once he got his thoughts back in order again, he prepared himself to begin burning the tin again, and this time, instead of burning it at a full blast, he instead brought it to a low simmer.

The world exploded into action again, though not nearly as drastic of a change as it had been the first time. Izuku could still clearly hear the waves in the distance and the starlight lit up his vision, even through the mist. Izuku could taste the simple dinner of fried rice on his tongue, the sensitivity of his taste buds skyrocketing. Reaching down, Izuku took a handful of sand, letting it roll out of his palm, and he could make out individual grains sliding against his skin.

 _So, this metal enhances senses…_ Izuku realized, nodding. He took off his shoes and socks, going barefoot on the soft sand before bringing the metal to a bit heavier of a burn. The starlight got brighter and he could make out details from a further distance. If he listened carefully, he could hear the sounds of cars driving on the road that ran by the beach..

 _I could get used to this…_ Izuku thought. Having acute senses...that was a powerful enough ability in and of itself. There were heroes out there that had sense-enhancing Quirks, and they tended to be very successful - especially in the underground. The first example that came to mind was Stethoscanner, a hero whose sense of hearing was so acute that he could hear heartbeats, even from hundreds of meters away.

He checked on his supply, recalling how a few minutes of constant burning had halved his brass supply, only to realize that it had barely gone down. The amount of the metal he'd swallowed was pretty miniscule, but he could probably burn it at this rate for at least a few hours without a problem.

Izuku was amazed. He could feel the water from the mists on his skin, a refreshing chill against the ocean's warm breeze. He could see well into the distance, even despite the fog. It wasn't like the mist had gone away, it just seemed more...translucent. Izuku bent down to get a drink from his water bottle.

"This is-"

 _Sssssssk!_

Suddenly, a deafening screech came from behind him and Izuku whipped around, throwing his hands to his ears to block out the unholy noise of metal scraping against metal as an old microwave came tumbling down from the top of a trash pile. In a panic, Izuku extinguished his tin just as the microwave crashed into the sand, the grating sound ringing in his ears.

 _Everything has consequences._ The words echoed in Izuku's mind. They were something that his mom had told him, way back when he was younger. _If you touch a hot pan, it will burn you. If you eat too much, you'll feel sick._

The advice seemed oddly fitting, _If I see something bright, or hear something loud while burning tin, it will be significantly worse than if I hadn't been burning it._ It was something he'd need to be keeping in mind going forwards. The biggest challenge with the new metal wouldn't be figuring out what he _can_ hear, see, or feel, It would be getting good at tuning unnecessary information out.

"Well," he mumbled, grabbing his water bottle and bringing tin to a soft burn once more. "I came all this way for nothing." Even his voice was loud in his ears.

Turning around and slipping on his shoes, Izuku headed back towards the foster home. He'd need to catch up on some sleep before he went to school.

* * *

Katsuki woke up to the sound of his mother hollering at him to come eat breakfast.

"I'm up!" Katsuki screamed, just so that she would shut the hell up. He threw on his school uniform haphazardly, not even caring to button it up all the way before slinging his backpack over his shoulder and waltzing out of his room and down the stairs.

"Good, I thought I was going to have to drag your ass out of bed again," his mother said as Katsuki emerged from the staircase. He frowned, clenching his fists.

"Can't you wait for me to get down the stairs before you go complaining, old hag?" Katsuki sneered. He tossed his bag on the floor next to the table before walking to the kitchen and grabbing a plate of food, crashing into one of the chairs.

"Slow the fuck down, you're going to break those things."

He snorted. "They haven't broken yet." Katsuki brought the plate to his mouth, scarfing down two pieces of bacon. "Oi, turn on the news."

Katsuki's father didn't say a word and didn't even look up from his newspaper at the table, he simply picked up the remote and pressed the button to turn on the TV. Katsuki smiled, _just another normal day,_ he thought.

Katsuki only half paid attention to the news as he ate. He didn't study the articles intently like Deku, he didn't need that shit - it was just good to get a scope of hero activity in the area.

"Do you think Inko's son is going to come to school today?" Mitsuki asked as she cleaned off a spot on the table and sat down.

"Fuck if I know," Katsuki said, shoving another spoonful of eggs in his mouth, "I don't care what that shitty Deku does, it's his fault for getting overpowered so easily by a no-name villain anyways." Katsuki turned his attention back to the TV.

 ** _Local Hardware Store Attack_** was the headline. Katsuki snarled and grabbed the remote, turning up the volume until the reporter's voice soon became audible.

"An employee was found unconscious in the back of the store by one of their co-workers. Their uniform had been stolen and items in the store were re-arranged. All security camera footage was wiped and most of the merchandise had been taken off the shelves. Investigation by police is underway, but it is unlikely the culprit will be found with such little evidence to go off o-"

"Boring," Katsuki changed the channel. "Who cares about some random hardware shop?" He flipped through the news channels until he found the one that covered hero news, setting the remote down.

As soon as Katsuki finished his breakfast, he put on his shoes and grabbed his bag, not even bothering with a farewell as he left for school.

* * *

Izuku didn't sleep very well. Turns out that waking up in the middle of the night for a few hours kinda puts a wrench in your sleep schedule. In fact, when his alarm clock went off in the morning, he'd been awake for some time, staring at the ceiling.

WIth a groan, he heaved himself out of bed and got ready, throwing on his school uniform and running a brush his hair before grabbing his bag to leave. Before he did, though, Izuku stopped at his desk, looking at his water bottle.

"Can't hurt to have some reserves," he mumbled, snatching the pouch of tin and a few crumbled pencil caps off of his desk. Just to be safe, before he went to bed the previous night, he'd burned off what remained of his reserves, wanting to avoid metal poisoning if at all possible.

"Down the hatch," he breathed, putting two of the pencil caps on his tongue as well as a fair-sized pinch of tin, washing it all down with a big gulp of water. He cringed, recoiling at the metallic aftertaste in his mouth.

 _That's going to be awkward to get used to._

Izuku started burning the tin on a soft simmer and his room immediately became brighter, the sound of the air conditioning unit got louder, and the disgusting metal aftertaste became even more profound. Although he knew what tin did now, it was going to take a lot of time to get used to the intense sensory input.

Thus, he'd made the resolution that until he could function normally with tin on, he'd keep it burning whenever he was awake.

His breakfast of simple oatmeal was one of the most intense experiences of his life. He could taste the nuanced blend of different spices, along with the smooth, yet crunchy feel of the oats rolling over his tongue. It was easily the best oatmeal he'd ever had. Similarly, the walk to school was short but overwhelming. WIth tin burning, the light that reflected off the concrete was almost blinding, the sound of cars and passing people deafening. The feel of the breeze over his skin sent shivers down his spine.

"I was just wondering if - " He heard a woman talk into her phone from across the street.

"Did you do the homework form today?" One of the kids that went to his school talking to a friend almost half of a block away.

It was overwhelming, but it was also _wonderful_. He'd never felt like this before and it was indescribable. _Is this what having a Quirk, a real, actual quirk feels like?_ Izuku couldn't help but smile widely the entire rest of the way to school, even as his ears were assaulted by a cacophony.

* * *

Deku was sitting in his seat when Katsuki got to the classroom, just like normal. Grimacing, Katsuki walked over towards his own seat, barely throwing the other boy more than a glance, though, in that small window of time, Katsuki noticed something odd.

A wide, massive grin was planted on the bastard's face. Katsuki sneered, clenching his fists. He _hated_ that smug look. What did he have to be smiling about?

"Oi Deku!" Katsuki shouted, and he saw the other boy jump in surprise, looking up. He was still smiling.

"What're you smiling for? You got your ass handed to you by a villain the other day." Katsuki expected him to just look down in shame, or to apologize and try to slide into his seat, just like he normally did.

"I woke up feeling good this morning." Deku shrugged, looking back down at his desk, running his finger up and down along the wooden top. Katsuki froze, anger welling up from the bottom of his chest.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Katsuki dropped his bag, speed-walking across the room, explosions cracking at his fingertips.

He only got halfway there before he stopped in his tracks.

 _Why do I care?_ He thought, the anger fading and general annoyance rising up in its place. _This kid isn't worth my time._

"Whatever. I could've beat that villain without breaking a sweat." Katsuki turned back around, throwing himself into his seat.

"I'm sure you could have." Deku responded, his voice hardly a whisper.

"Tch." Katsuki leaned against his arm, waiting for the teacher to come in.

* * *

Izuku could hear the sound of the chalk running against the board clearly from his seat all the way in the back of the classroom, almost to the point where it was distracting. He could take the whispered conversations and he could tune out the sound of pencils scratching on paper. What he could not _stand,_ however, was the unnerving rasp of chalk on the chalkboard. He almost stopped burning tin and the only thing that stopped him from doing so was constantly telling himself that he needed to get used to it.

Class came and a similar fashion. Izuku spent his time getting used to tin's enhanced senses and the people in his class ignored him like normal. They didn't even approach him about the villain attack, something he was thankful for.

* * *

Days passed as Izuku trained with his tin. He started getting used to tuning out distractions and singling out only what mattered. Additionally, on the brass side of things, he continued to practice singling out certain feelings from others and how to vary the strength as needed. He slowly got a hang of turning off tin when he anticipated things like bright lights or loud booms coming, and he got used to flaring it when he wanted to focus on something in particular.

He still was far from mastering it, however. He had a feeling that there were some ways that he could be abusing the Quirk, so he had to keep telling himself that they'd come with time. Despite that, he was still impressed by his own progress.

He also noticed some other things about the metal. As he got used to the enhanced senses, when he spent up all his tin to go to bed for the night, he felt oddly...empty. Where the louder sounds and brighter lights had been overwhelming before, going back to normal senses was jarring.

 _How did I live like this for years?_ Izuku found himself asking as he strolled through the new hero news on his laptop. He'd brought the brightness down to as low as it could go, a comfortable level for his tin-enhanced eyes. _The world feels so much more...alive like this. I can see things I never saw before, hear things other people could never hear,_ Izuku thought as he scrolled past an article about Kamui Woods and his suspected love affair with Mt. Lady, _This is-_

"Help! Someone!"

Izuku froze. It was faint, barely audible to his ears.

 _And I'm burning tin_. He immediately started flaring his metal and the world erupted around him. He shut his laptop, the light becoming like a flood light to his vision, and he closed his eyes, just focusing on _listening_.

He heard Miss Sakura cooking downstairs, and one of the kids in the house playing with their toys. Concentrating, Izuku tried his best to tune those out.

Then, he heard it.

Crying.

It was soft and muffled, as if it were travelling through a lot of material.

A voice, "Are you going to fucking listen to me now?" Their words slurred together, as if other person who'd said them was intoxicated. Izuku stood up immediately, trying to pinpoint the noise, slightly reclining when his chair slid backwards, causing an ugly sound. It sounded like it was coming from his left, so he walked to that end of the room, pressing an ear up against the wall.

"Y-yes!" a woman's voice came through as a sob. "Just d-don't hurt me...don't hit me again…" she faded back into soft sobbing. Izuku grabbed his arm to shop himself from shaking. It was coming from the building next to the foster home.

Izuku clenched his fists, not able to move, trying to think. The building on the left of them was unoccupied so it had to-

The sound of glass shattering and a scream from the woman filled his ears.

Izuku started running before he knew what was going on. He threw open his door and bounded down the wooden staircase, skipping five steps at a time. He wheeled around in the kitchen, throwing open the front door, ignoring Miss Sakura's confused call after him, but Izuku didn't stop to turn around.

He ran down the sidewalk, keeping his tin flared. The bottoms of his feet screamed in protest as he ran across the rough concrete, but he ignored it. He ran in the direction of where he'd heard the disturbance.

Izuku's suspicions were confirmed as he ran straight by the abandoned house directly adjacent to the foster home, continuing to the one on the other side of it. As he sprinted to the door of the second house, he heard the sobbing get louder. This was the right one.

He ran to the door, throwing his weight against it and slamming his hand down on the door handle with all the strength he could muster. The door gave in, blowing open with a blast of wooden splinters.

Inside, there were three people. One was a woman, cowering in the corner with her hands above her head protectively. Tears were streaming down her face and she was bleeding from her temple. Standing over her was a man, half of a beer bottle in one hand, the floor below his feet bespeckled with liquid and glass shards.

In the corner of the room, there was another person, a girl that seemed his age, pushed up into the corner and cowering, as if she were trying to hide.

Izuku didn't have time to think. He sprinted forwards, throwing all of his weight into a tackle. He slammed into the man with his shoulder, putting all of the strength he could into the tackle, blowing the older man off of his feet. Izuku reached out to everyone around him, flaring his brass.

"Call the police!" Izuku screamed as he and the man hit the ground. He put all of his weight into the small of the man's back while also making sure to grab the man's arms He let his knee push down between the man's shoulder blades, using the rest of his weight to keep the arms pinned. The man was bigger than Izuku, but not so much that he couldn't hold him down with some effort.

Izuku didn't have time to discriminate what emotions to soothe away. Instead, he just smothered everyone in the room with an emotional blanket, pushing as hard as he possibly could. The man below him just groaned drunkenly, squirming under Izuku's hold.

He focused his brass on the man in particular, pushing as hard as he could, harder than he'd ever pushed before. The man just stopped moving, docile under Izuku's combined hold of brass and weight.

The woman in the corner, the one who was injured, was still cowering, unmoving sobbing uncontrollably. Izuku heard a girl's voice, the girl his age, quivering as she talked into the phone. He flared tin and listened to the conversation, making sure to keep the man down. Luckily, either due to his drunkenness or the brass, most likely a combination of both, the man didn't try to fight back.

Izuku held the man down until the police pried him off.

* * *

"So, let me make sure I have all of this right. You heard someone call for help while you were walking by the house on the street and took it upon yourself to try to help?" the police officer asked. He had the head of a cat, some side effect of a Quirk, although it might've been his Quirk itself. He thought back on one of his classmates whose entire Quirk was that his arms were replaced by a bear's.

Izuku flushed, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Yes, that's right." The police officer frowned in response. After the police had gotten to the residence, they'd taken the man into custody and separated everyone out for questioning.

"You know how dangerous that could've been? It's best to get professionals involved, especially when it comes to breaking into someone's house like that."

"Sorry…" Izuku tapped his heel against his calf, looking down at the ground, "My legs moved on their own." The officer eyed Izuku. Eventually, he just sighed.

"We can pass this off as being a good samaritan, so you're free to go. If something new comes up regarding the situation, we'll contact you. You might need to testify as a witness in court," the man said, turning around and writing something on his notepad. "Try to be more careful, kid. There's a lot of dangerous people out there, especially for Quirkless people." Izuku grimaced.

He didn't have any of his metals on at the moment; a lot of police forces had someone with them that could either suppress quirks or detect when one was being used and he didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Izuku looked around the area, getting ready to head back to the foster home. A few meters down the road, Miss Sakura was waiting, her arms crossed with an eyebrow raised.

 _Great,_ Izuku gulped. _I am so getting scolded._ He turned to leave, but something caught his attention first, the sound of a car pulling away. Looking over his shoulder, he saw one of the police cars pulling away from the scene, a figure sitting in the back.

Next to where the car had just been, standing barefoot on the concrete, was the girl who had called the police, the teenage girl his age. He hadn't actually gotten a good look at her in the heat of the moment.

She was tall, taller than Izuku himself by at least a few centimeters and she was wearing what seemed to be a simple nightgown, which was understandable, seeing as it was already a few hours past sunset. The most notable, however, was her hair, set up in a large ponytail. It was almost stiff looking and frayed out towards the ends, a bit spiky.

She was talking to another officer, though she seemed on the verge of tears. Izuku was just far enough away that he couldn't hear what she was saying.

But with tin...

Izuku reached out towards his reserve of tin, prodding the big well. He still had much of the tin he'd swallowed earlier despite flaring it for a solid minute straight to find where the cries for help had been coming from. Izuku was just about to burn it and listen in on the conversation when he stopped.

 _No,_ he told himself. _that's their private business. I have no reason or right to intrude._ He pulled away, looking forwards again towards Miss Sakura.

* * *

Izuku was barely able to keep his concentration in class the next day. He didn't get a lick of sleep and it was coming back to bite him in the ass. Though, not sleeping had been less of a choice and more of a side-effect of his own overbearing thoughts.

After some vicious ear tugging and scolding from Miss Sakura for getting involved with the police _again_ , he'd gone up to his room to lay on his bed and think, mostly about _why the hell he got involved_.

Domestic abuse is a sensitive issue. A lot of the time when families struggle with it, it's an issue tied up in a whole nest of other issues and pulling out a single straw could cause the entire thing to collapse. Abusees frequently make excuses for their abusers and it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for the family to actually blame _Izuku_ for breaking into their home.

He'd thrown himself into an issue that he had no business being a part of, and by doing so, he'd made his life just that much more complicated.

Yet, the mere thought of hearing that cry for help and doing _nothing_ made his stomach turn. The idea of hearing someone in need and deliberately doing _nothing_ to help, especially when he was in a position where he could help, made his insides boil.

Izuku ran his finger up and down the wooden desk again, feeling the grain of the wood on his tin-enhanced fingertips.

"-Midroiya, would you answer this question?" the teacher asked, and Izuku drew his attention away from the desk, standing up in a hurry. Izuku looked at the board, then to the teacher.

"Umm...could you repeat it?"

The teacher sighed. "What does this sentence mean in english?" He pointed to the line of kanji on the board. Izuku nodded, flaring tin. He noticed that it helped him concentrate, or at the very least, it supplied his mind with enough sensory input to push back his tiredness. It was an odd side effect, but useful. Izuku translated the sentence then sat back down.

* * *

Izuku opened the door to the foster home after school, wanting nothing more than to just crash onto his bed and pass out for a few hours.

"I'm home," he sighed as he walked in, making a line straight for the staircase.

"Before you disappear for the night, you have a package." Miss Sakura said, pointing to the table.

Izuku frowned, turning around. _Package?_ Sure enough, sitting on the kitchen table was a little cardboard box, haphazardly taped shut with the address written on in sharpie.

"A man came by today and dropped it off, saying it was for you." Miss Sakura turned back on her TV, looking away from Izuku. He went over, grabbing the box and hefting it. It was fairly heavy.

He got to his room and set the box down on his desk, flicking the switch on the desk lamp. With tin, that was more than enough to illuminate the entire room. He took the box, which literally only had his address and first name written on it in sharpie, and popped it open.

Inside, there was a note, as well as 3 distinct ingots of metal and a file.

"The clerk!" Izuku remembered. It had been at least a week since that encounter, so he'd nearly forgotten.

 _Izuku, here's some metal like I promised you. This one has pewter, a metal used for old kitchen utensils, and it's an alloy of tin and copper. There's also a bar of iron and a bar of steel. I also included a file in case you needed to have smaller samples for your experiments!_

The letter wasn't signed, which was a bit odd. but Izuku hefted the three bars, looking at them. He hadn't been expecting the clerk to actually follow through on his promise to provide Izuku with free metal, but he wasn't going to complain. It was a free way to test out different possibilities, and he was going to need all the help he could get considering he still had no idea what metal yielded the carnage that he'd caused on the street.

"Well," he mumbled. "If I'm going to be out again tonight to test these, I'm going to need to get some sleep." He put down the bars on his desk and rolled onto his bed, not even bothering to change out of his clothes. He extinguished tin and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to draw him in.

"Izuku, you have a visitor!" Miss Sakura's voice called.

"You've got to be kidding me," H=he said, sitting back up and burning tin again. He threw open his door and ran down the stairs and at the bottom, Miss Sakura was standing in front of the door, talking with someone outside.

"I'm here." Izuku said, grabbing the door and opening it all the way so he could see who was there to visit him. Izuku's breath hitched in his throat.

The tall girl with the black ponytail from last night, the one who'd called the police.

"H-hello," Izuku said, suddenly nervous.

"Hello," the girl said. "My name is Yaoyorozu Momo, and I was wondering if we could talk."


	4. Chapter 4: Iron and Steel

**Steel and Iron**

* * *

 _Hello everyone! Just a quick note before the chapter starts here: Sorry that this took a few extra days. It was supposed to go up on wednesday, but I rewrote half of this chapter 3 times cause I didn't like how it turned out. On that note, one of my friends over on the Izuocha discord server made a COMIC for this chapter, and it's GREAT! I'll put it in at the end of the chapter, so for now, enjoy!_

* * *

"Hello," the girl said. "My name is Yaoyorozu Momo, and I was wondering if we could talk."

Izuku froze, looking at her for a moment. This could...be bad.

"Sure thing, sweetie," Miss Sakura opened the door, gesturing for Yaoyorozu to step inside. Only then did Izuku recover from his shock to move out of the way.

"Thank you." Yaoyorozu stepped inside, stepping past Izuku, who was just awkwardly standing to the side, unmoving. Any exhaustion that he had from the day had faded, only to be replaced by a subtle feeling of utter dread.

Yaoyorozu stood next to the table for a moment. She didn't make any moves to start anything, and neither did Izuku. The tension in the air was so tight that if it were tangible, he could have cut it with a butter knife.

Finally, Miss Sakura spoke, "You two can have a seat at the table, I'll make some tea."

Izuku took the opportunity to rush over to the table, taking the seat opposite Yaoyorozu. They sat in silence while Miss Sakura waited for the water to boil before pouring it into two separate mugs with a couple of tea bags each.

"Milk or sugar?" she asked, setting down both of the mugs. The question was directed at Yaoyorozu, since Miss Sakura knew already that Izuku liked his tea bitter.

"This is fine. Thank you," Yaoyorozu responded kindly. Izuku could tell that she was tired just by the sound of her voice. Miss Sakura nodded curtly, leaving the room.

Izuku stared down at his mug, watching the tea seep in, unsure of how to start the conversation.

I mean, how do you start a conversation like this? Do I just say "hey, sorry that I may or may not have thrown a wrench into your entire home life"? Izuku breathed out, taking the tea bag out after only about thirty seconds and raising the mug to his lips.

He sipped it, and the flavor rushed over his tongue, each individual spice acute to his senses. He could taste the savory cinnamon and the sweet plum distinctly. It was a bit hot, but it was refreshing.

"You hardly let it seep in, I'd be surprised if it tasted like more than flavored water." Izuku looked up, mildly surprised by the sudden comment. Yaoyorozu was looking between him and his mug, so he just raised it again, taking a sip.

"I don't like it to be strong." he said simply. More like if it were any stronger, it would be overwhelming.

Yaoyorozu just looked at him for a moment, before letting out a little snort. The snort turned into a giggle, and the giggle devolved into a light laugh. Izuku couldn't help but crack a smile as well.

"Well, I'm Yaoyorozu Momo, it's nice to meet you."

"Midoriya Izuku, and uhh...same."

"I'm sorry - " Yaoyorozu said between laughs, "You're just...not what I expected."

"I - " Izuku started, a bit taken off guard, "I don't really know how to respond to that."

"It's just, I didn't expect the person that broke in my door yesterday to tackle my stepdad to the ground would be an awkward teenager who looked uncomfortable in his own shoes."

"Now, I get that a lot. The second part, I mean. The part about being an awkward teenager and stuff." Izuku said with a laugh. The awkward silence returned a moment later

"Well," Yaoyorozu started, "I probably owe you an explanation."

She took a deep breath to steady herself, before beginning, "So, first off, I'm sorry about last night. Things got out of hand, and you had to get involved and - "

"I'm sorry." The words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them. "I threw myself into a situation that I had no right getting into. I should have just called the police, or gotten a hero involved or something. I probably caused a bunch of problems for you and your family, so I'm sorry."

Yaoyorozu looked at him for a moment, a little shocked. Finally: "If I'm being completely honest, I don't know if I should thank you or not. It's really a complicated situation, isn't it?" A sigh. "I'll try my best to explain, and we'll see how I'm feeling at the end of the conversation."

Izuku gulped, nodding. With that, Yaoyorozu began again.

"Well, I'll start from the beginning. My family name, Yaoyorozu might be familiar to you. My father is the head of the Yaoyorozu foundation, a big name in the international trade business. I'll spare you the details, but a number of years ago, my father and my mother went through a rough divorce and my mom won custody. We were poor for the first time since I could remember, but with my mom to lean on, I got through it."

Yaoyorozu took a deep breath, steadying herself, "A year or so ago, my mom married my step dad. I didn't see him a lot when they were dating, but I thought he was a nice enough guy. When we moved in with him, things were okay for a while. That was, until he got fired from his job. He started going to the bars more, and he'd come back drunk nearly every night. When he got drunk, he got angry, and when he got angry…" she trailed off, taking a shaking breath.

"He really wasn't a good man, was he?" Izuku heard her breathing quicken, and her breathing was raspy, rather than the calm controlled breaths of before. Looking up, he saw a single tear roll down her cheek.

"Hey - " Izuku tried to interrupt her, but she kept talking.

"When he hit mom, she told me to not get involved. She got good at covering up her bruises. One night, I tried to stop him, but he just hit me instead. I should have called the police a long time ago, but mom wanted to work things out. I think she really did love the good side of him, and if she was happy, then we could push through the bad parts, right?"

She's getting really worked up…

"You don't have to tell me all of this…" Izuku mumbled into his shirt. Yaoyorozu just shook her head.

"I think," Yaoyorozu started again, "that I'd wanted to call the police for a very long time. I'd tricked myself into thinking that what we had could get better, that we could be happy again. If he got a job, he'd stop going to the bar, so he'd stop getting drunk, and he'd stop getting mad. I thought that for months. Yet, when you came in last night, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I couldn't let that bastard hurt anyone else."

They sat in silence for a moment, Izuku trying to take everything in. It wasn't exactly too out of the ordinary for cases like this. All of the domestic abuse cases he'd read about online usually were based on the victims thinking that things could 'get better'.

Yaoyorozu let out a sigh and a sniffle, "Well, there's my life story, I guess."

"I - " Izuku said, "I don't know how to respond to that "

"Pfft - " Yaoyorozu raised her hand to her mouth, stifling a giggle, "I wouldn't either, don't worry."

"I'm still sorry for messing everything up. If I had handled things better, then we might have been able to fix things the easy way."

Yaoyorozu shook her head, "I made my decision on whether I should thank you or not." she took a deep breath, "While things might be a little hard for a little while, it won't ever be as bad as it was for these last few months. So, thank you Midoriya, for putting that bastard behind bars."

Something flared up inside Izuku's chest. Not the kind of flare that came with burning metals, but rather, a surge of emotion. A surge of...pride? Self-worth?

Whatever it was, it felt good.

"Well, maybe I should leave before things get awkward again…" Yaoyorozu said, standing up.

"I'll see you to the door." Izuku said, standing up as well, holding his mug. Izuku sniffed at the drink, flaring his tin and taking in the scents. Instinctually, he checked his reserves.

Tin is okay, but brass is a bit low… he thought, reaching for his pocket, where he had a few balled up pencil caps stored. Without a second thought, he put the ball of metal on his tongue and raised his tea, taking a big drink to wash down the brass. Instantly, he felt his reserve swell.

Looking up from his mug, he made to walk Yaoyorozu to the door.

Only to see her looking at him, a mix of complete confusion on her face.

"Did you just eat a ball of metal?"

Oh. Shit.

"I - uhh...well, you see" Izuku sputtered, "It's a, uhhh..I need it for my quirk!"

"I see…" Yaoyorozu slowly nodded, getting ready to turn around before: "The police officer yesterday told me you were quirkless, though."

Bad. Very bad. Izuku thought, mind racing. Very, very bad.

On his last option Izuku burned brass, not bothering to be specific about what emotions to target. Izuku just hit Yaoyorozu with a soft blast of soothing.

"It's a long story. Let's just leave it?" he said hopefully. To his relief, Yaoyorozu started to nod. Them, to his dismay, she frowned again.

"I knew it!" She said, taking a couple of steps away, startling Izuku, "You have a manipulation type quirk!"

...What.

"I - I don't know what you're talking about." Izuku said.

"I just felt you try to make me less suspicious."

Shit. Izuku thought, How can she know? Everyone else I used brass on couldn't tell!

"Uhh...let's sit back down?" Izuku said, turning off his brass entirely. He returned to the very same seat that he'd been at a moment before, and Yaoyorozu walked over, taking a seat, but he could tell by her posture that she was still wary of him.

I feel like the one that's on stage now… a moment before, Yaoyorozu had been the one spilling her guts to him.

"I know you have an emotional manipulation quirk." Yaoyorozu spoke first.

"How?"

"My stepdad has one too. His amplifies the emotions of those around him when he uses it. It's part of how he kept my mom and I in line, so I know what it's like to have your emotions tampered with." Yaoyorozu said, "I had a hunch after last night. The sudden shift in emotions could've been from either his quirk stopping, or from someone else. It seems that the latter was correct."

Izuku sighed, defeated. Caught between a rock and a hard place.

"You basically told me your life story. I guess I owe you this one." Izuku said.

It's odd, really. I haven't told anyone else about this, not even Miss Sakura. Ironic that the first person that will know about my quirk is someone I just met today.

Izuku took a deep breath. "The quirk registry still has me down as quirkless. That's because, up until about a week and a half ago, I thought I was. It wasn't until recently, when some...extraneous circumstances brought to light the true nature of my...quirk." He still wasn't entirely sure what was up with the metals, and whether or not it could really be called a quirk, but she didn't need to know that part.

Izuku pulled a pencil cap out of his pocket, before popping it into his mouth and swallowing it dry. He was getting better at that part, at least. "I can swallow metal and use it up to do certain things.. Brass lets me suppress emotions" - he hit Yaoyorozu with a little push of it to emphasize his point - "and tin enhances my senses, which is why I could hear your mom's call for help last night. It's also why I kept my tea weak."

Izuku took a deep breath, realizing that he'd said basically all of that without as much as a breath in the middle. He'd spewed it all out in a matter of seconds thanks to his nervousness.

Yaoyorozu looked at him for a moment, before raising her hand to her mouth again with a giggle. "You sure are nervous. I don't see why you are so concerned about keeping it a secret, it's just a quirk, I'm sure everyone will understand. And you should go get your quirk registry updated. It's illegal to have one that is deliberately incorrect, I think. But if you want to keep it a secret, I won't tell anyone"

Izuku sunk into his chair in relief . "I won't tell anyone about your family stuff either."

"Deal." Yaoyorozu said, "though, if I may ask, what 'circumstances' came to light that led to you eating a piece of metal?"

Izuku let out a chuckle, "Well, you see, it wasn't actually that that started it. There was...an incident, and my quirk must have activated on instinct. Except, instead of using up the metal in my stomach, as I didn't have any, it actually used up all the iron in my body, and.."

Iron in his body, consumed.

Blue lines.

A destroyed city street.

It clicked.

"Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu said when Izuku suddenly stopped talking looking up at her for a moment in shock. Yaoyorozu waved her hand in front of his face, as if to check if he was spaced out.

"Sorry!" He yelled, bolting for the staircase, "I think I just realized something! Wait right there!"

As soon as Izuku was in his room, he threw open his desk drawer, grabbing his most recent volume of Hero Analysis for the Future. He didn't even bother to shut the drawer before running back out of his room, skipping steps on his frantic flight down the staircase.

"If it uses metal content in my body as the fuel, then when I first used my quirk, it consumed all the iron in my body. That must mean…" Izuku mumbled, sitting down in one of the chairs at the table, throwing his notebook open to the page that he'd began to build on his own quirk.

"If it used up the iron, that means that it has to be a metal that I can burn. But I hadn't eaten any iron, so that must mean that It can use up metals located elsewhere in my body, like my bloodstream…"

"Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu asked, confused by the sudden outburst. Izuku, however was too consumed in his own mumblings to notice.

"Does that mean that metal just has to be somewhere inside of my body for it to be used? Isn't iron usually stored as atoms within molecules inside of the bloodstream? Does that mean that I can use up metals that are bonded? If so, where does the leftover molecule go? Could I accidentally poison myself by making a compound that's poisonous?" Izuku stopped for a moment. "I need iron."

Izuku stood back up in an instant, knocking over his chair in his hurry. He ran to the drawers and cabinets around the kitchen, throwing them all open.

"Silverware is made out of silver and pewter." He shut the utensil drawer, opening another, "Is this made of iron?"

"Iron, I need iron. Something small enough to swallow…" Izuku mumbled, opening drawer after drawer after drawer.

"Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu practically yelled. Izuku's head snapped up, looking over to where she was standing. In her hand, there was a small grey bead. He tilted his head, walking over.

"You said you needed some iron?" She smiled, gesturing to her hand. Izuku took the bead, rolling it over in his palm.

"Where'd you get this?" he asked. It certainly looked like iron.

"I made it with my quirk," she said. Izuku looked up at her in awe.

"...With your quirk?"

Yaoyorozu nodded. "It's called Creation. I can make anything, so long as I know the chemical structure." As if to demonstrate, in the palm of her hand, an assortment of blue and pink particles came into existence, and a moment later, another bead of iron was sitting in her hand.

"Woah…" Izuku breathed in shock, "that's...so cool."

Completely forgetting about the iron bead in his hand, Izuku threw open a new page of his notebook, writing down Yaoyorozu's name and the name of her quirk at the top.

"That's so versatile, you could make so many different things, it's practically built for hero work. You could learn to make a bunch of different weapons, or even dangerous compounds to use as weapons against villains. How does it work? What does it use as a fuel source? Can you make an unlimited amount of stuff, or do you need to take breaks? So many options…"

"Well, it uses my lipid cells as a - " Yaoyorozu cut herself off, "Hey, weren't you just freaking out about needing to have iron for something? Why are we on my quirk now?"

Izuku froze mid sentence, looking up. "Whoops." He stood upright once more, awkwardly shutting his notebook, reaching up with one hand and scratching the back of his head, "Sorry, I get...a bit excited sometimes when it comes to new quirks…"

Yaoyorozu let out a little laugh, "I can tell. Anyhow, you were going to do something with iron."

Izuku jumped, as if just realizing how off topic he'd gotten in a matter of a few seconds. He took the iron bead in his hand looking it over.

"Here goes nothing." he said, popping the bead into his mouth, swallowing it dry. He'd gotten used to dry swallowing metals recently. Reaching inside, he felt for anything odd. Sure, just like with tin before it, there was a new reserve sitting there, ready to be used.

Woah...despite the bead he swallowed having been tiny, the reserve of iron was massive in comparison to what it should have been. He almost felt inclined to start theorycrafting on why, as the other metals seemed to be replenished by similar amounts in relativity to the amount of metal swallowed.

Later, he told himself.

"Okay, here we go." he steeled himself, perfectly aware of Yaoyorozu standing next to him. Reaching towards the new reserve, Izuku started to burn iron.

Immediately, blue lines shot out from his chest, seemingly in all directions.

"What the hell…" Izuku breathed, looking around the room. The blue lines were mostly transparent, non-obtrusive to his vision yet there enough that he could clearly see them. They spanned out in every direction, only disappearing when they hit something like one of the cabinets or a wall.

"Can you see this?" Izuku asked, gesturing around him. Yaoyorozu just tilted her head in confusion.

"See what?"

"These lines. Blue lines, going everywhere."

Yaoyorozu just shook her head, "No, I can't see anything." Izuku frowned. Checking his iron reserve, he saw that the metal seemed to burn relatively slowly. Not as slowly as tin, but he'd last a while on this amount.

Let's see where this goes… Izuku singled out one of the blue lines, moving around the room. As he walked, one end of the line stayed attached to his chest. Wherever the end of the other line was seemed to stay put as well, just the angle of the line changing to adjust for his movement. Frowning, Izuku followed the line, tracing it to its source.

He walked over to the counter, looking at where the line ended.

"A spoon?" He mumbled, picking up the utensil that had been setting on the counter. Even in his hand, a line shot from his chest towards the spoon. Looking around the rest of the room, Izuku searched for the other ends of lines.

Forks, the stove, the teapot, the buttons on his school uniform, the refrigerator. All of them had lines attached to them. What did all of those things have in common that something like the table, which didn't have any lines oriented towards it, didn't?

"Metal...they're all made of metal," Izuku said, "So iron points out sources of metal? Is that it?"

His mind flashed back to the carnage on the street, the metal rebar ripped from its foundation, merchant stands torn apart by having their nails removed.

No, there's more to it.

Izuku looked up at the spoon in his hand, holding it up to the light above him and focusing on the blue line. Izuku felt as if there was something important about the line...almost like he could…

Izuku pulled on the blue line.

Suddenly, the spoon was ripped from his fingers, and sent flying directly downwards towards him by some force. Izuku yelped, trying to duck, but the spoon curved in midair, pulled directly into his face.

"Ow!" Izuku yelped, extinguishing iron. The spoon fell limply to the floor as all the blue lines disappeared from around him.

"Midoriya, are you okay?" he heard Yaoyorozu call, her footsteps loud to his ears. Izuku sat up, rubbing his forehead where he'd been struck.

"That spoon...it attacked me!" Izuku said, getting on his feet, leaving the spoon on the ground. He looked up, trying to piece together what the hell had just happened. He looked at Yaoyorozu, who just looked at him for moment, her expression unwavering.

"Pfft - " she snorted, beginning to laugh, "- there's a red mark on your forehead."

Izuku flushed, throwing a hand up to his forehead, trying to cover it up. That only made Yaoyorozu laugh even more. Eventually, Izuku couldn't keep himself from laughing, and found himself chuckling at himself.

"You just - " Yaoyorozu said between laughs, "you hit yourself with a spoon." She let out an ugly wheeze, which just served to make Izuku break out into uncontrollable laughter.

"I swear, it came alive and attacked me!"

It was a solid few minutes before either of them were able to gather their composure again. Even then, they were both left smiling like a bunch of idiots.

"Well, I'll leave you to attacking yourself with spoons then."

"Yeah," Izuku said, "I'll let you go do...whatever you have to do now." Izuku responded, walking with Yaoyorozu to the door. She grabbed her bag off of the hangar and made for the door.

"Well, Midoriya, I'll see you at school in a few days then." Yaoyorozu said, grabbing the door handle.

Izuku tilted his head, "You go to the same school as me?"

Yaoyorozu shook her head, "Not yet. I was homeschooled for a long time, but I want to take as much pressure off my mom as possible, so I'm going to start going to public school in a couple of days."

"Ahh, I see," Izuku muttered, "Then, I'll see you then."

Yaoyorozu stepped outside, "See you around, spoon-kun."

Izuku smiled as she left.

* * *

Izuku tried to sleep while he waited for night to come around. After his sudden revelation as to the nature of iron, he'd realized something that caused his heart to sink. Before, he'd gone to the Dagobah Municipal Beach Park because he had wanted to be sure that he didn't want to endanger anyone around him with the metal that had destroyed the street when the sludge villain attacked.

Then he'd turned right around with tunnel vision and used the very same metal inside of the house. In his excitement, he'd gotten tunnel vision and put everyone else in danger.

What if it had done something more than just hit me with a spoon? What if I had caused the building to collapse? Izuku groaned, staring at the ceiling. Izuku looked over at the clock

"It's midnight." he sat up, swinging his feet off of the bed. He was tired as hell, but the combination of his excitement from iron and his anxiousness from the stupidity of his mistake had kept him up. His eyelids feel heavy, but he powered through.

Walking over to his desk, Izuku grabbed the few pouches of metal shavings from earlier. In the hours he'd waited for everyone to go to sleep, he'd taken the ingots of metal supplied by the clerk he'd met, as well as the file and made pouches full of each individual metal. Stuffing the pouches into his pocket, Izuku slipped on some tennis shoes and went to his closet to get a sweatshirt.

He slid open the closet, looking inside. To his surprise, it was completely empty, all save for one article of clothing, hanging from the rack.

"Miss Sakura, you always choose to do my laundry at the worst times." Izuku sighed. He'd checked the forecast on his phone earlier, and it was supposed to be cold. Going out without a sweatshirt would be unpleasant, especially with tin.

"What can you do…" Izuku was about to turn away from the closet when his eyes were drawn to the last remaining piece, hanging on the rack. He grabbed it, pulling the black cloth off the hangar.

The black and grey cloak that he'd been delivered to Inko and Hisashi in, fourteen years ago.

Izuku eyed the odd clothing piece for a moment, strangely drawn to it. He'd kept it as a memory of where he'd come from, a reminder almost. Now, for some reason, he felt drawn to it. The way the many layered tassels faded to an odd grey color was interesting.

He felt the cloth in his hands, basking in how smooth it felt, as if it weren't even made of real cloth. It was absurdly lightweight, and he barely felt it weigh down on his hands. Against his better judgement, Izuku threw the cloak over his shoulders.

The tassels reached just above his feet, stopping just short so that it didn't drag against the ground. The solid part around his shoulders comfortably fit his chest, the drawstring in the middle holding each side on. Lastly, he kept the hood down, not caring enough to put it all the way on, letting it sit around his neck, almost like a sweatshirt.

"I feel like I'm cosplaying something…" Izuku muttered, turning to leave. Still, he kept the cloak on. It felt surprisingly natural and unobtrusive to wear, and for some reason, it just felt right. He couldn't put his finger on why, but some part of him felt attached to the cloak.

Izuku turned around, leaving his room and creeping down the stairs.

It was another misty night. The oddly thick fog swirled in the dark, obscuring vision. At least, it would obscure the vision of anyone without tin to aid them.

Izuku maneuvered over piles of trash, finding the clearing that he'd practiced at with his metals last time. Sure enough, it was still there, a small circle of sand amidst mountains of discarded appliances, bags of garbage, and scrap metal.

"Okay," Izuku said. "Now, I can only hurt myself."

Izuku shifted in the cloak, reaching into his pocket for the pouches of metal and pulling out one of them at random.

"Pewter it is, then," Izuku mumbled to himself. He needed to get through all of them eventually, so the order didn't matter.

Izuku took a pinch of pewter, putting it into his mouth and washing it down with a big gulp of water. Just like with all the other metals, a new reserve spang to life within him. If was distinct from brass and iron. Though, he did notice something as he inspected it.

There seemed to be some sort of connection between tin's reserve and the new well that was pewter, almost like a tie of sorts. Curious, Izuku reached out and began burning pewter.

Unlike the immediate reaction he got out of burning tin, Izuku didn't notice anything at first. There was no blast of new sensory input, and he didn't really see any changes to things around him. Unlike with brass, it didn't feel like he could direct the new metal towards something.

Confused, Izuku kept burning, flaring the metal. Once again, he didn't really notice any difference.

Until he moved.

Izuku had reached for his water bottle, and drastically overshot the movement, his limbs responding faster that he'd been expecting. Instead of learning forwards to grab the bottle, he'd jolted forwards as if on uncontrolled muscles, and he lost his center of balance. Before he could stumble, however, as if is body knew what to do automatically, Izuku regained his footing on the soft ground.

Huh? Izuku looked down at his body incredulously, like it had moved without his command. Except, the thing was, it had responded to his command, just way quicker than he'd been expecting. Carefully, Izuku took a few steps around.

Once again, his muscles reacted far quicker and more precise than they had any right to. He noticed something else as he stood, as well. His sense of balance was impeccable. When he moved around on the beach the shifting of the sand below didn't even give him pause, and when he'd reached down for his water bottle, there wasn't a single hint of vertigo.

He turned around, walking in circles around the clearing, and he felt remarkably good. Just moving around felt more natural than it ever had, if that was even possible. All of his motions felt calculated, fluid.

When Izuku grabbed the the lid to his water bottle, the cheap plastic was crushed in his fingers.

"Huh." Izuku muttered, looking at the crumpled piece of plastic in his hand, and everything clicked into place, "That's why I felt that bond between tin and pewter... they're connected in that one enhances the senses, while the other enhances physical attributes!" That didn't solve the problem of his broken water bottle lid, though.

Going over to one of the piles of trash, Izuku found a hefty looking piece of garbage. It was an old car door, broken off at some point and separated from the rest of the car. Izuku extinguished the new metal, checking the weight of the piece of trash. Without the assistance of the metal, he could just barely lift up the car door, much less move around with it.

Except, when he tried again with the new metal, it got a lot easier. It wasn't like he could suddenly lift it all with one hand or something like that, he wasn't All Might. It was more like a minor boost. He walked around, hefting the car door. It was still a little bit of a strain on his arms, but nothing more than what, say a heavy backpack, would've been. When he flared his the metal, it got even easier, and it felt like carrying something not much heavier than a few kilograms.

Then, it all seemed to get a lot heavier. Izuku yelped as gravity tore the door from his hands and all the books spilled across the floor. He hadn't been keeping an eye on his metal levels, and he'd run out without realizing. The weight he'd been able to hold just because of his enhanced muscles was suddenly too much.

"I just swallowed some!" Izuku groaned, checking his reserve. Sure enough it was completely gone, not a hint of pewter left. The same amount of metal that tin could have lasted for about an hour on was gone in just mere minutes of burning.

Irritated, Izuku pulled the pewter flakes out of his pocket, dumping the whole bag into his mouth and swallowing. He began to burn pewter at a soft level, and everything instantly felt better. His balance came back, his sense of exhaustion disappeared, and the biting feeling of the cold on his skin lessened.

Pewter didn't just enhance his strength and speed. It enhanced every physical attribute, if only slightly. The strength boost wasn't anything like having an enhancement type quirk, either. It was just enough to be noticeable to himself, yet concealable at the same time.

"I could...get used to this…" It was the same thing he'd said with tin. Granted, he'd need a lot more pewter to keep up the same habit that he had with tin, but it was probably a good idea to keep it burning while he was awake. It was going to take some time to get used to the new movement granted by pewter. Thus, Izuku let the metal simmer alongside his tin.

Izuku pulled out the last two pouches of metal, one iron, the other steel. In the back of his mind, a idea was forming. Iron and steel were pretty similar to one another, steel was just carbonized iron, afterall.

On a hunch, Izuku took a pinch of both metals, putting the filings into his mouth and washing them down with water. He immediately felt two very similar reserves spring to life. One was the iron that he'd burned earlier. The other reserve felt very similar to the iron, and just like with tin and pewter, there was a tie between iron and steel.

Izuku took a deep breath, steeling himself. Tentatively, Izuku reached out and burnt both iron and steel at the same time. Immediately, blue lines shot from Izuku's chest outwards in every direction, connecting themselves to various sources of metal in the area.

"Earlier, when I hit myself with the spoon…" Izuku started to mumble, "It didn't come alive or something like that. I did that to myself, didn't I?"

Izuku singled out one of the blue lines, one that was connected to a small metal bar a few feet away. He felt at the line, thinking out his options. He flared iron, and the blue lines got brighter, but he also felt an odd urge pull.

Trusting his instincts, Izuku mentally reached out and pulled on the line. The metal bar sprung to life, shooting off of its resting place a few meters away. This time, unlike with the spoon, he was ready. He stuck his hand out, and a split second later, snached the flying metal bar out of the air.

"Iron pulls." he said, "what does steel do then?"

The answer seemed obvious. Izuku held the bar out in front of him, looking at the blue line. This time, flaring steel, he pushed on the metal bar.

Sure enough, the metal sprung into action, shooting out of Izuku's hand quickly, where it sailed for a few meters, before embedding itself in one of the mounds of trash.

Then, much to Izuku's surprise, he felt a sudden wave of vertigo as he was thrown off of his feet. Heu yelped as he was launched into the air and backwards by some invisible force.

"Gah!" Izuku let off the steel, and a moment later, he fell back to the sand. Pushing himself onto his knees, he spat sand out of his mouth.

"What the hell was that?" He pulled himself onto his feet (albeit a bit too quickly, causing him to nearly lose his balance again), and looked in the direction that he'd been thrown, "Is somebody here?" he called into the mists. All he was met with was the gentle swirling of the fog.

Izuku looked back towards where he'd embedded the metal rod into the pile of trash. He walked over cautiously, searching for any signs as to what might have thrown him into the air like that.

"Iron pulls and steel pushes," Izuku said to himself, "but what was that at the end?"

I only fell once I stopped pushing Izuku realized. That at least meant that steel was somehow involved. Carefully burning steel once more, the blue lines got more vibrant.

That's another theory down. Iron and steel can both see lines, and they overlap if I'm burning both. He thought. Iron and steel also both burn slowly, it seems.

"Okay, so I pulled the bar towards me," Izuku thought, retracing his steps, "after that, I pushed it away, where it got stuck against the pile. As soon as that happened, I…"

Izuku trailed off, his mind flashing back to something that Inko had told him many years ago, when the kids bullied him at school

"A lot of the time, the bigger kid wins. If someone is bigger than you, Izuku, you'll get pushed around easier than if a kid your size is pushing you around. Remember that, so you know when to run away."

It clicked.

"When I pushed on the bar at first, it was smaller, so I could push it around. But when it hit the pile, suddenly it was a part of something bigger than me, so I got pushed around instead." Izuku mumbled. In his excitement, he whipped around looking for where various blue lines connected to. Within the vast piles of trash, it was next to impossible to tell where specific pieces of metal were. Still, he found exactly what he was looking for, a slightly thicker blue line that led to a washing machine.

"Here we go." Izuku waked over, looking at the large appliance. It was slightly buried underneath garbage bags, but flaring pewter was enough to dig it out, where he placed it in the middle of his little clearing.

The bigger boys push harder. The heavier things won't get pushed around.

Izuku stood on top of the washing machine.

They'll push me around!

He burned steel and pushed on the washing machine below him.

The mists blew into his face as Izuku shot straight up into the air.

"Gah!" Wind rushed against his face as he shot up like a bullet. Still, he didn't lose his cool.

Ten meters, then twenty meters.

His pushing slowed as he got further away.

Thirty meters in the air, and Izuku forced himself not to look down. He could just barely see the blue line that connected him to the washing machine below, but he could still push.

He slowed to a stop at what had to be about forty meters in the sky.

Izuku looked around, making sure to keep pushing on the washing machine below with steel.

"It sure pushed back, alright," Izuku sighed. Looking down, even his tin-enhanced eyes could see nothing but the mists swirling below him, as well as the faint, barely visible blue lines connecting him to sources of metal below.

"I'm...really high up," Izuku said, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating. "Okay, hypothesis true, but...holy shit, I'm stupid."

Izuku slowly let off on the push below, and he felt himself slowly sink down, losing altitude as he let off on how hard he was pushing on the washing machine. As he got close enough that he could see the ground once more, he felt his heart slow, the panic retreating.

When his feet landed on the sand once more, he collapsed to the ground, wishing that he could hug it.

"I could have died," Izuku realized, "what if the washing machine was off center and I went flying into the ocean? What if I landed on one of the trash piles and impaled myself?"

Izuku cursed himself for being so reckless, and once he was done with that, he slapped himself a few times, as if to knock sense into his head.

Thinking about it a little, he knew that there was a real reason for why things worked that way. When he pushed on something, he was probably using a force around or equal to his body weight. When he pushed on something smaller than him, it got pushed away.

But if he tried to push on something bigger than him, his body weight wasn't enough to move it, and if the thing he was pushing on couldn't move, then he needed to move instead, which is what led to him getting thrown away. The same concept applies to if he's pushing on something smaller than him, but it doesn't have anywhere to go, like if he were to push against a coin on the ground, for example.

Izuku knew there was going to be a lot of intricacies to the metal, but the possibilities were already running rampant in his head. The possible uses that pushing and pulling had were nearly endless.

Using metal as projectile weapons, using iron and steel to push or pull people out of danger, pushing on the metal on someone's outfit to knock them off balance in a fight, using the blue lines to track enemies with metal on their person.

Using metal as a means of quick mobility.

There were so many implications of iron and steel alone, not to mention in tandem with the other metals he already had at his disposal. There was so much to learn, with so little time before the Yuuei entrance exams to learn it. There were a lot of things he knew that he hadn't even thought of yet. All of those things were indications of one thing for Izuku:

He was going to need a lot of practice.

* * *

That's it for this chapter, everyone! I hope you enjoyed it. Now, as promised, here's the comic made by PK over on the Izuocha discord server. (theres a bit of some hinting at future character stuff at the end, so get theory crafting, if it so pleases you).

I can't post direct links on becuase the site is dumb, but here's the link with all the periods replaced with commas. To view the image, all you should need to do it change the commas to periods, and put it into your URL address. Link: imgur,com/a/e52iR8R


	5. Chapter 5: Who Are You

**Chapter 5: Who Are You?**

* * *

"Alright, here we go," Izuku breathed, looking up at the buildings looming above him. The mists were back again, the mysterious fog swriling silently in the night. WIth a shake of his head, Izuku forced his mind off to the task at hand with a flare of pewter.

Three days had passed since Yaoyorozu Momo came to talk with him, and three days since he'd discovered what iron and steel did. In that time, he'd slept a grand total of zero hours; he hadn't felt the _need_ to sleep, at least not since he'd started persistently burning pewter.

That, actually, was one of the first things he'd noticed about the metal. Like tin, it enhanced his body, but while tin only affected the senses, pewter gave a boost to all _other_ capabilities of his body, particularly the ones that were on the physical side. Burning pewter was like being attached to a generator, in a way, and had so far allowed him to delay the effects of sleep deprivation.

He went to school, barely able to sit still in class - probably due to a mix of excitement to get back to training, as well as the energy provided by pewter - headed home, did his homework, scrolled through hero news on his laptop, and waited for the best part of day the day: when the sun set and everyone went to bed.

When night finally fell, Izuku took his cloak and pouches of metal and disappeared into the mists to train. With three days straight of burning pewter, Izuku was already used to the fluid movement, and had begun to fall into the same mindset that he had with tin - _where has this been all my life?_

The bulk of his training was focused around using iron and steel. Turns out, both of them were _very_ intricate, and he'd spent all three of the past days just getting down the basics. He'd learned that the strength of both his steel pushes and his iron pulls were stronger up close, growing weaker the further the distance between him and an object. He also discovered that his range topped out at around thirty-five meters, and objects had to be of a certain size to be affected by the metals. He couldn't just push on atoms in the air or within objects.

He learned (the hard way) that iron and steel weren't just metal control. He could only push or pull things in a straight line from his body. The force acted from center-of-mass to center-of-mass, meaning that his point of action was actually around his mid-chest area. He couldn't pull things towards certain points of his body, and aiming things that he pushed was a bit difficult sometimes, since he couldn't aim from eye-level.

Through trial and error, he'd also found the threshold at which things moved from being pushed by him to instead pushing _him_ around his own weight, and when he thought about it, it made sense: it was just Newton's Third Law in action.

All of those things he'd learned had taken _three days_ to test out, and he knew he was just scraping the surface. He still had no idea how he'd torn up a city street with the metals, and he hadn't even _tried_ anything with pushing himself off of objects, nor had he attempted pulling himself towards things. His experience was limited to shooting metal scraps around Dagobah Municipal Beach to practice his aim and minor 'tests' he'd performed to find out how the metals exactly worked.

"Which brings me...here," Izuku breathed."Trying to jump onto the roof of a five-story building."

The alleyway was narrow and garbage bags lined the floor, overflowing from the dumpster. As powerful as iron and steel could be just in pushing things away or pulling things towards himself, he knew those were _far_ from the most powerful uses. The _real_ potential was in the mobility.

If he could got good at using pushes and pulls to launch _himself ,_ he'd be one step under flying.

 _Well...not exactly one step under, but it's as close as I'm ever going to get_. He thought, _now, stop procrastinating_.

Izuku's hand twitched, and he took a nervous step forwards, looking between the two, menacingly tall apartment complexes. He reached inside of his tasseled cloak, grabbing for the leather coin pouch that sat on his hip.

In the last few days of training, he'd discovered something a bit interesting. One-yen coins were just big enough that he could affect them with pushes and pulls, allowing him to shoot them at very high velocities as potential weapons, but they were also uniform in size, which allowed them to cut through the air easily. They were also cheaper to use than buying scraps at a hardware store.

Izuku took a coin out of the pouch, rolling it over in his palm. He was already burning both iron and steel, so a blue line connected from his chest to the bit of metal. Izuku took a deep breath, steadying himself.

"Stop psyching yourself out," he muttered, "You suspended yourself in the air above a washing machine the other day, what's a third of that height?"

Before he could stop himself again, Izuku flicked the coin onto the ground below, and before it could roll around, Izuku pushed with steel.

He felt an invisible force run through him as he shot into the air, propelled directly upwards. He shot up half the distance in less than a second before he noticed what was wrong.

He'd pushed at a bit of an odd angle, so once he was in the air, the coin had begun to slide on the ground. That had caused his angle to change, so instead of heading towards the lip of the roof, he was instead shot straight into the wall.

"Gah!" Izuku yelped as he smashed into the brick, his shoulder taking the brunt of the impact. He flared pewter, relying on the pain tolerance granted by the metal to steady himself, and with its assistance, the pain was blunted to just a little more than a sting.

The coin on the ground slid all the way to the opposite wall, where it came to a stop, stuck between his own push and the other building. in that moment, Izuku was suspended in the air by the force from his push seemingly perfectly cancelling out gravity. Izuku felt the force of the push on his chest, pinning him against the wall.

 _Don't look down. Don't look down,_ his mind told him.

Izuku looked down.

"Okay, okay, okay," Izuku breathed, "Shouldn't have done that."

The ground was somewhere between ten and fifteen meters below him, a drop that would at least break a normal man's legs. If he pushed softer, then he could probably begin a slow descent, but that also ran the risk of scraping his _entire back_ against the brick wall on the way down.

Izuku sat for a moment, perplexed. He glanced from side to side, searching for other blue lines to assist him, but all he could detect was the dumpster below, and he knew pushing or pulling on it would send him off in an odd direction. It was only once he looked down and saw the coin pouch on his hip, did he come up with a solution.

"I'm stupid." He said, taking one hand and reaching into the pouch. Taking one coin in his left hand, and the other in his right, Izuku began to hatch a plan.

He didn't actually need to stick his arms out dramatically in order to use iron or steel, it was more of a mental push or pull, depending on what metal he wanted to use. As such, he could use his hands while in air without having to worry about losing his anchor. Izuku took one coin and put it up against the wall behind him, positioning it directly behind the small of his back, next to his center of mass, and then lightly pushed on it.

Slowly, he moved away from the wall, just pushing enough to counteract the horizontal force from the coin on the ground. As he drifted out onto open air, he took the third coin, and dropped it directly below him. He pushed on it as it fell, accelerating its decent. Thankfully, the third coin slammed into the ground directly below him, and the moment struck, Izuku began to ascend straight up, propelled by the third push. FInally, he stopped pushing on the first two coins, only riding on the last coin's push.

Izuku shot over the lip of the roof of buildings, thrown by the third coin he had below. Except, he'd pushed a bit too hard, which had made him _significantly_ overshoot his goal, soaring a good few meters into the air above the rooftop. To ensure that he landed on the roof, he pulled on one of the air conditioning units that sat above the building, adding a little horizontal velocity.

When Izuku landed on his feet on the roof (he suspected that he only landed on his feet due pewter), he immediately fell to his knees, letting out the largest sigh of relief of his life.

"That was almost _very_ bad," he breathed, "That is going to take a _lot_ of practice."

He waited a while before attempting to stand, and when he finally did, it was on shaky legs. Slowly, he made his way over to the edge of the roof and looked towards the ground below. He'd _actually_ jumped straight onto the roof, a five story jump on his first attempt. Granted, he'd had a bump in the road or two, but he'd _done it_.

Izuku let out a victory cheer, letting himself reel in his success. At least, he did until he realized one, very daunting fact.

 _How do I get down?_

A panicked glance around the roof revealed a door. He headed over and gave it a hopeful tug, but to his dismay, it didn't budge.

"Locked." Izuku mumbled, walking back to the ledge. He looked at the door, then back to the ledge, then back to the door again.

 _Either I can figure out a way down, or I can explain tomorrow morning to the landlord why a kid in a weird cloak without access to the building was on his roof_. Izuku thought. _I don't really have a choice, do I?_

Izuku sighed, looking down at the ledge. His eyes were drawn to the thick blue line that connected to the dumpster below, and mind flashed back to the first night he'd trained with iron and steel, how he'd slowed his descent from above the washing machine as if it were second nature.

"Can't be too hard, can it?" Izuku gazed down, looking at the bags of trash uneasily.

Izuku looked back at the door, frowned, then sighed. A fall from this high would probably kill a normal man, so if he didn't slow his fall, even pewter wouldn't be able to keep him from breaking his legs.

"I've done this before, I can do it again." Izuku reminded himself, "I've got this...the first step to learning is practice."

Before he could psyche himself out again, Izuku took a step off of the roof.

Wind rushed past his face, and Izuku began to push softly on the dumpster below. He felt the force of steel run through his body as the wind became quieter and his descent slowed. Soon, he found himself coming almost to a stop a few meters above the dumpster, so he let up a little on the push. He fell, little by little, centimeter by centimeter, all the way down. At about a meter above the ground, Izuku let go of steel, and he landed nicely on the dumpster's lid.

Izuku let out a breath. "That was...easier than I expected."

Izuku took a coin out of his pocket once more. "Time to go again."

* * *

Izuku sat on the edge of the roof, letting his feet dangle off the edge. His ribs hurt from hitting the wall one too many times, and he was pretty sure that pewter was the only thing keeping him going. Yet, despite all of that, he felt remarkably good. He'd gotten his first _good_ session of training with iron and steel done with, and he was actually feeling progress.

Now, though, as Izuku sat in the mists, letting the odd vapor swirl around him, he found himself with some time to think. Out of all the things that he could be thinking about, he found himself pondering something that had been on his mind for years now, but only recently at the forefront of his mind. It was just a mere question.

 _Who are you?_

* * *

Izuku sat on the roof of the school, eating his lunch. The roof was always a nice spot to sit, since hardly anyone ever came up there. He could spend time taking in the sun and thinking to himself without having to worry about someone intruding.

Six days with no sleep, and Izuku still didn't feel tired whatsoever, all thanks to pewter. Not sleeping for so long was _probably_ a bad idea, but he'd gotten so much done. He was able to keep up with all of his schoolwork, continue filling out his hero notebooks, and train with the metals every night.

"Midoriya," a voice called, "I finally found you!"

Izuku looked up from his lunch to see a figure emerging from the doors that led to the roof. He only needed to see her black ponytail to immediately recognize who it was.

"Yaoyorozu?" Izuku sat up a little straighter, putting the bento box off to the side so that he could stand up if the need arose. Yaoyorozu smiled and hurried across the roof to where izuku was sitting, leaning up against one of the railings. Without even a word, she sat down right next to Izuku, leaning up against the railing as well.

Izuku just looked at her for a moment in confusion. She just looked at him before turning to her own bag, retrieving her own lunch. She opened it, taking out a pair of chopsticks and beginning to eat.

Izuku couldn't think of anything to say. She'd just come up to him, inviting herself into his space, and didn't even start up a conversation.

 _I knew she said she'd be transferring to the school soon, but…_ Izuku had not expected it to be so quick. Yaoyorozu stopped after a bite, looking over at Izuku and raising an eyebrow.

"What's with that glare?" Yaoyorozu stopped, a smirk touching her lips. "Oh I know!"

She moved to her bag again, digging around. A moment later, she turned back to Izuku, holding an object between the two of them.

Yaoyorozu looked Izuku in the eyes, and said, completely deadpan: "I brought you a spoon."

The air fell dead silent, even to Izuku's tin enhanced ears. Nothing else existed except for him, Yaoyorozu, and the metal spoon she held between them.

"Pfft -" Izuku snorted, breaking out into a laugh. "Why would you bring me, of all things, _a spoon_."

Yaoyorozu giggled, breaking the serious facade. Her laughter infected Izuku, causing him to begin laughing more. The two of them were only able to reel themselves back in after a good minute or two of laughing, and even then, they were only able to speak in-between fits of giggling.

"Well," Izuku said, "You were the last person I expected to see today, in all honesty."

Yaoyorozu took a bite of her lunch, putting the spoon on the ground between them. "My mom didn't want me to miss out on very much schooling, so despite still being at the hospital, she signed the transfer papers. Today is actually my first day, I'm in class 3-2."

Izuku hummed in affirmation and silence fell between them for just a moment. He was in class 3-1, which explained why he hadn't seen her earlier that day, despite it being halfway over.

"You know, you were pretty hard to find. I walked down all the hallways at least twice looking for you."

Izuku nodded. "I'm good at being where people can't find me."

Yaoyorozu looked at Izuku for explanation, but he kept his mouth shut. It had been a while since anyone had gone after him for his...disposition - outside of Bakugo's occasional flare-ups - but old habits die hard. He'd spent most of his childhood trying to make himself as un-noticeable as possible, and it had carried over to his teenage years. He ate lunch on the roof, got to school just in time, left as soon as possible, the whole nine yards.

"Ominous, much?" Yaoyorozu took another bite of her lunch.

Izuku just hummed in response.

"Not much of a talker, huh?"

Izuku shook his head, "Never have been."

Silence fell between them once again. Izuku knew it was his fault, talking to him was basically like talking to a brick wall sometimes, or at least that's what Miss Sakura told him. There _was_ one question looming over his mind, though.

"Say," Izuku started. "Why did you go searching for me?"

Yaoyorozu clicked her tongue. She usually had a sort-of sassy demeanor to her, but when Izuku looked over, it was gone, replaced by what seemed to be unease. Her shoulders were tensed up, and she looked ahead of her at the ground.

"I don't really know." Yaoyorozu finally said with a deep exhale. She learned back up against the railing with a sight. "Maybe it's just because you're the only person that I even know here. Transfering into a new school is kind of hard, especially in the middle of a semester when everyone already has their cliques. I think i just want a friend."

Izuku's heart sank, panic rising within him.

"You don't really even know me." he mumbled, barely above a whisper.

Yaoyorozu frowned, but didn't say anything, so Izuku continued.

"I keep secrets from everyone. I'm not sure if even _I_ know the real me anymore. It's like I've been hiding from everything for my entire life," Izuku breathed, "Even myself."

Izuku closed his lunchbox, stuffing it into his bag. "I've lost my appetite." In one fluid movement, Izuku threw his bag over his shoulder and rose to his feet and began to walk away. Just as he was about to turn to leave, he caught a flash in the corner of his eye. A blue line.

Izuku moved on instinct, burning steel with a flash and pushing on the line connecting to some item that was flying straight towards him. The object reacted to the push, shooting straight into the ground with a resounding _twang_. Izuku let off steel before he could throw himself into the sky on accident.

"Well, that at least got your attention," Yaoyorozu called. "You didn't need to abuse my spoon like that, though."

Only then did Izuku realize what had happened. Yaoyorozu had thrown the spoon from earlier at him and he'd accidentally spiked it into the concrete with a steel push. Silently, he walked over and picked up the now-bent utensil. When Izuku looked up again, Yaoyorozu was on her feet, walking towards him.

Yaoyorozu put a hand on Izuku's shoulder, "Midoriya, you really aren't good with people."

Izuku just tightened his jaw. "I know."

"Okay, so, when a person says they want a friend, that usually means that they want _you_ to be their friend. Trying to walk away isn't exactly the best course of action."

Izuku tensed. "I know."

Yaoyorozu sighed. "Then let's make this simple. Midoriya, would you be my friend?"

Izuku's throat tightened up. He'd never really _had_ a friend before. Either others pushed him away, or he pushed himself away. Either they hated him for whatever their perception of who he was, or he made sure they stayed away by showing them a _different him_.

Izuku was good at hiding, but he was great at hiding who he _really was_. He kept his hair dyed, and he wore green contacts. He kept his powers, his 'Quirk' a secret from everyone around hm, and he didn't talk unless he needed to. Izuku hid who he really was because he didn't even _know_ who he really was. Who had left him on that doorstep nearly fifteen years ago? What _were_ his powers, a Quirk? Something else? Were the smiles he showed people genuine, or were they fake? What was his real personality, when he wasn't trying to impress someone?

 _Who was Izuku Midoriya?_

Even he didn't know, and that was scary. Letting someone else in, someone that could get to know him better, someone that could get to who he really was…

Now that was _terrifying_.

Izuku flared steel. "I'm sorry." he dropped the spoon and pushed, throwing himself off and away from the building. He heard Yaoyorozu call for him as he sailed over the edge.

Izuku reached to his belt, grabbing a coin from the pouch and dropping it below him, before pushing against it. He landed on the ground with a short stumble before breaking into a pewter-infused sprint.

* * *

The mists blew by Izuku's face as he pushed off of the coin below his feet. It sent him up and at an angle such that he landed swiftly on the next building's roof, not breaking his stride, and he kept running, letting the pounding of his feet on the concrete distract him from his thoughts.

Izuku reached the edge of the building, the side that overlooked the street below. Without a moment's hesitation, he jumped straight off. As he fell, he reached behind him, flaring steel and pushed on one of the building's windows. He changed direction in mid air, the push stopping his slight downward momentum before pushing him up and out from the building., and just as he was reaching the distance that his push wasn't powerful enough to keep him airborne, Izuku instead reached out with iron, pulling on the metal railing that lined the roof. The force yanked him upwards.

Except, he miscalculated the trajectory, so instead of stopping his pull early to launch himself _over_ the railing, he instead had to keep pulling as to not drop onto the street below. That caused him to be yanked more forwards than he'd expected, and he crashed into the railing, tumbling over it and onto the roof. He felt the air fly from his lungs, he hit his arm pretty hard on the concrete, and he was dangerously close to slamming his head into the ground. He flared pewter to stay the pain.

"Gah," Izuku sputtered, pulling himself onto his knees. "This is hard."

After a few days of practice, pushing and pulling was beginning to feel more natural. Instead of having to think out where a push would send him, he began to just know instinctively what to do. Still, he was far from proficient with the powers.

On numerous occasions, he'd hit walls, or he'd pull on something that wasn't the right weight, causing him to not only crash again, but also hit himself with some random chunk of metal in response. He'd had a few close calls, and suspected that pewter was the only reason that he hadn't broken anything yet.

This night also marked a week straight of burning pewter and a week without sleep. Still, he couldn't feel even a hint of exhaustion, but his muscles were beginning to sore. He'd probably need to take a break some time soon, not to mention the fact that he was burning through his store of pewter pretty quickly. There was only half of the bar left, while the iron and steel ingots he'd received were still practically untouched.

Izuku shook his head as he stood up, seeing the blue lines around him shifting with his movements. The mists swirled silently, and Izuku couldn't shake the feeling that they were odd, somehow. He'd never had a summer where deep fog was so persistent, coming every few nights. They danced around him, he noticed, tendrils seemingly licking off of his skin, parting way for his movements.

 _Nonsense, it's just water vapor, it's probably reacting to your body heat,_ Izuku blinked, flaring tin to help him concentrate. The mists thinned, and the starlight lit up his vision even more.

 _Who are you?_

Izuku broke off into a sprint once more, his mind echoing the things he very much _didn't_ want to think about. After his conversation with Yaoyorozu on the roof, he hadn't come back to school. It had taken a lot of alone time and tin to clear his thoughts, and afterwards, he'd just felt like shit and a bit of an asshole.

Yaoyorozu was alone, in an environment that she was unfamiliar with, in a situation that didn't help her in the slightest. Middle schoolers could be cold, that much Izuku knew first hand, and to make matters worse it was their third year. Everyone already had their groups and high school was just around the corner. Yaoyorozu didn't have any friends, so she'd gone to the closest thing she had, and what had Izuku done?

He'd run away.

 _Who are you?_

Izuku threw himself off the ledge once more, pushing off of the railing slightly. The next building wasn't too far, so a small nudge was enough to let him land safely on the other side of the drop. He ran, then flicked a coin and pushed, throwing himself cleanly over the next street onto the next building. Blue lines faded into the distance as new ones appeared, rushing by like a slideshow of fancy lights.

 _Who are you?_

Izuku bit on his tongue, letting the pain bring his focus in. He turned as he jumped off the next building, now falling parallel to the street below. Izuku corrected his trajectory with a small nudge on a door handle across the street, stopping his forwards momentum just as he flicked another coin onto the road. He pushed against it lightly, and he fell onto the asphalt without as much as a stumble, where he broke into a sprint.

He didn't know where he was going, he just knew that he needed to do something, _anything_ to keep himself occupied. There were no cars on the road at this hour, and even if there were, Izuku knew that he'd see them coming from far enough away that he could get off the road before they so much as knew he was there.

Before long, Izuku gave up on the road, pushing off of a parked car onto the roof of another building. As soon as he landed, he knelt down, breathing heavily. Though pewter enhanced everything physical, including his stamina, he wasn't a _machine_ ; he needed rest, too.

Izuku let himself breathe in the wet air, letting his mind focus on the creaking sound of his breathing. He'd seemed to have taken a pit stop somewhere in the Rasaaran ward, an area full of storage warehouses. It wasn't too far from where Izuku lived, but a good few kilometers at the least.

Izuku let his breath come back down to a normal level before forcing himself back onto his feet. He reached for his coin pouch.

 _BANG!_

Izuku froze, spinning around. The sound of metal falling to the ground rang in his ears, and Izuku frantically searched for something in the night, but there was nobody else on the roof.

"Who could have guessed, that someone like _you_ would be right where you don't belong." a voice said, but it was faint and muffled, even to Izuku's ears. Only then did he realize, the noise was coming from _below_ him, Inside of the warehouse.

 _What's going on?_ Izuku thought, thankful for the distraction. As quietly as he could, as to not have his footsteps echo inside the building, he walked over to the edge.

 _Most warehouses have some sort of..._ Izuku grinned as he saw it. _windows._

Next to the building, there was a stack of supply crates that conveniently stacked up so that he could stand on them and see inside. Izuku walked over and jumped off, slowing his fall slightly with a light push.

Inside, the lights of the warehouse were on, and Izuku could make out at least four figures inside. Two looked to be wearing some sort of middle school uniform, but Izuku didn't recognize it.

 _Probably from some school in this area,_ Izuku reminded himself.

The other two were odd, though. One looked to be a grown man in a full blown suit, holding a briefcase at his side. The last looked like a boy with a head full of purple hair, and deep bags under his eyes. The two kids in the school uniform seemed to be wearily standing facing the purple haired boy, while the man in the suit stood to the side.

"You listen here," one of the kids took a step towards the purple haired boy. "We're the ones asking questions here, and don't you dare use that damned quirk of yours."

The other boy looked around, looking the suited man in the eyes, "Don't respond to any of his questions or comments, that's how his Quirk gets you."

The purple haired boy just shoved his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt, nodding lazily. Izuku frowned as he watched the interaction go on.

"What were you doing here at this time of night?"

The purple haired boy just shrugged, "I was taking a walk. Now, I don't want anything to do with...whatever this is, so I'll be - "

"Oh no you won't," the other boy pushed against him, shoving him back with enough force to make him stumble to the ground. "You aren't going nowhere."

Izuku felt a lump rise in his throat. There was something very _very_ fishy about the entire situation, and it left a bad taste in his mouth.

The two school boys turned to each other and began whispering, and they were far enough away that even flaring tin wasn't enough to hear what they were saying. Eventually, someone spoke up: the suited man.

"It seems our...business has been intruded on. If we cannot come to an arrangement, then I'll be taking my leave." The man straightened his collar and turned towards the exit of the warehouse.

"Wait!" both of the uniformed boys shouted in unison, taking a step towards the suited man. The man did indeed stop, looking at them through black sunglass lenses.

"Don't go, we can figure something out!" the first kid said.

"Yeah, we can get him to keep his mouth shut, we promise!"

Izuku felt his gut sink to the floor. Something was wrong, and every bone in his body screamed at him to _run,_ to jump away from the building and run home and forget everything he'd seen.

Yet, for how often his body moved without the will of his mind, no matter how much he wanted to get out and run away, his legs wouldn't move.

"Look, boys, I'll level with you." the man in the suit put down his briefcase and turned around, taking steps towards the purple haired boy.

"I'm running a business here. Now, businesses work off of having customers, and I've got a feeling that you two would be very profitable customers. It's a win-win for both of us." The man stopped a few paces from the where the purple haired boy was sitting on the ground.

"You see, there's this other thing about my business. It's a bit of a secret, and things could go bad if the information fell into the wrong hands. The customers aren't a problem, they don't usually run and tattle. Trigger is very addicting, you see. My problem comes up when there is someone that _isn't_ a customer finds out about my...trade."

"You don't need to do anything rash!" the boy on the ground finally spoke, and his voice was full of panic. Izuku could see the fear in his eyes. "You can trust me, right?"

The man in the coat just shook his head solemnly, reaching into his coat. He didn't respond to the boy's question, seemingly heeding the middle schooler's warning. He moved his arm and pulled out…

A gun.

Everything went into slow motion for Izuku. The two middle school boys sprung forwards, panic on their faces. The purple haired boy tried to scramble away, sheer terror falling onto his face as the man in the suit levelled the pistol at him.

 _Who are you?_

Izuku flared steel, but no line connected him to the barrel of the gun. He was too far away.

 _Who are you?_

He flared pewter. The mist _reacted,_ swirling around his body.

 _Who are you?_

Izuku threw his fist forwards as hard as he could possibly manage, and the mists shifted with his arm.

 _Who are you?_

"I don't know."

The window shattered.


	6. Chapter 6: Repercussions

**Chapter 6: Repercussions**

* * *

 _So, before this chapter, I owe y'all a quick explanation. I missed an upload, as some of you may have noticed, and so I'm currently 2 weeks late. This chapter took longer than it normally would have because college has been kicking my ass recently, and it's been hard to get the time to write. Hopefully the next update should be on time, but no promises, since finals are coming up. Anyways, with that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

Shinsou closed his eyes, trying to prepare himself for the shot. He'd heard things about how your life flashes before your eyes in the moments before you die, but he just felt...nothing. Nothing except for the sinking feeling in his gut as he waited for the sound of a gunshot.

He let out a breath as he heard the revolver cock.

Then, the sound of glass shattering.

Shinsou's eyes snapped open, and his head turned in the direction of the noise. Time seemed to slow as shards of glass rained down from the window, a figure falling with it.

Shinsou watched as the figure landed gracefully on the ground across the warehouse, not even stumbling after what had to be a multiple story fall. He wore some sort of black and grey cloak that tasseled out at the end, seeming like it faded away into nothingness. The hood of the cloak covered the his face, only a tuft of green hair was visible. A thick fog flowed in from the window they'd broken, spilling out onto the ground around them, seemingly flowing _around_ the figure.

 _Menacing_

The man in the coat whipped around, turning towards the source of the commotion. He shifted, taking his aim off of Shinsou, whipping it around towards the new person.

Only for the gun to be ripped out of his hand by some invisible force, shooting across the warehouse and skidding to a stop on the ground a few meters away. Shinsou was too shocked to move, a mix of fear and confusion rooting him to the spot.

The figure shifted on the spot, seemingly dropping something to the ground. A moment later, they shot forwards, propelled by an invisible force, their cloak flapping behind them. Shinsou suddenly felt a wave of _ease_ wash over him. His fear fled, and the shock that had kept him rooted all but disappeared. Everything else seemed to go numb, the only thing left being an overwhelming sense of trust.

 _Whoever this person is,_ his mind told him, _they're here to help._

The next few moments passed in a blur, so much so that Shinsou could barely keep up with the movements. The cloaked person landed on the ground a few feet away, breaking instantly into a sprint without so much as a stumble. The man in the suit, as if only just taking in the situation, made a move to run for his gun, but his feet failed him. The soles of his shoes slid against the ground, and he stumbled.

The stumble was more than enough delay, and the cloaked figure caught up to the man, throwing a punch.

Shinsou heard the sound of a jaw cracking, and the suited man fell to the ground. He didn't get back up.

Just then, one of the other two boys, Shinsou's classmates, let out a guttural scream of sheer _terror_ before taking off at a dead sprint for the exit.

The figure just snapped their head away from the unconscious body and towards the source of the noise. Then, they jumped into the air, changing directions and... _falling_ towards the boy, feet first. The kick landed right in the small of Shinsou's classmate's back, knocking him to the ground, his head bouncing off the ground.

The figure turned to the other boy, "Are you going to run as well?" the figure's voice came. It was a male's voice, though it sounded a bit...young.

The other boy just gulped and shook his head, even sitting down on the ground and crossing his legs for emphasis. With the suited man unconscious, one classmate possibly concussed, and the other one sitting like a schoolkid on the ground, the cloaked figure finally turned towards Shinsou.

 _What in the hell just happened?_ Shinsou basked. In a matter of _seconds_ , the man who'd been about to kill him moments ago was unconscious on the ground, and his two classmates were sitting around like children.

"Call the police." the figure's voice came.

Shinsou typically thought of himself as level headed, but everything felt _off._ He felt an unnaturally strong urge to comply to this person's demands, and everything had happened so _fast._ Still, Shinsou was in _no place_ to refuse anything at the moment, so he pulled his phone out and dialed the number.

Mist was flowing in from the shattered window, and the thick fog started to fill the warehouse, already pooling at their feet. Shinsou's finger hovered over the button to send through the call.

The cloaked boy paced, looking at the ground and muttering. He checked the suited man's limp body three separate times, and Shinsou was sure he heard a sigh of relief accompanied by a "he's alive".

"Make sure they don't go anywhere," the boy said, pointing at Shinsou's classmates, the ones who'd been on the other side of the drug deal. Shinsou just gulped and nodded, still a bit shaken.

 _Who is this person?_

The figure looked around the room one last time, before shifting again, pulling something out of a pouch at his side.

"Who are you?" Shinsou blurted out, still holding his finger over the call button.

The cloaked figure looked over, and for the first time, Shinsou got a glimpse of his face. Tired eyes not unlike his own looked back under matted green hair.

"I don't know."

With that, he shot off the ground, flying back up to the window that he'd broken in to save Shinsou's life, leaving without turning back.

Only then did Shinsou press _call_.

* * *

Aizawa was only beginning to get back into the sleep schedule of a full time underground hero. Most of the time, he had to split hero work and teaching, usually only working as a hero for occasional midnight patrols or raids on big villain conglomerates. Except, this year he didn't have any teaching to balance.

He'd expelled the entire class for their lack of potential, afterall.

With the entire bulk of his day essentially free for the next ten months, he made the shift to full time hero work, which for him meant sleeping a maximum of six hours during the day, patrolling at night, going to any meetings Yuuei required of him (he was still technically an employee), then going back to sleep.

And so, Aizawa sat atop one of the buildings in a nearby ward, keeping an ear and an eye out for any odd behavior.

"This damn fog isn't doing me any favors, though." he muttered to himself, kicking a pebble across the roof. The thick fog was irregular, of that much he was certain. Climatologists were baffled as to what was even going on, unable to come up with even a semblance of an idea as to the origins.

The fog only came at night, and only came every few days, though Aizawa swore that it was getting to be more and more common. The odd thing was, the fog retreated as soon as dawn came, and it didn't enter buildings.

Some of his co-workers had theories that it was the work of some quirk, a villain with some sort of weather manipulation. Others thought that it was due to higher levels of humidity from worsening global climate change.

Aizawa hoped it was the latter, but had suspicions about the former. If it was some sort of villain, using the mists as a cover for their crimes, particularly at night, then he would have a lot of work cut out for him.

Aizawa didn't jump when his phone buzzed in his pocket, but he was mildly surprised. His agency didn't typically call him while he was on patrol, especially at this hour, not unless it was some sort of emergency.

He answered the call with a _click_ , "Eraserhead here, what is it?"

"Eraser, we've got a situation," the operator said, "Rasaaran ward, sector 3."

Aizawa didn't waste time making for the door that served as the exit from the roof, still holding the phone to his ear, "Details?"

"A middle schooler was the one that made the emergency call, he'd stumbled in on some sort of drug deal, a couple of his classmates were the buyers."

AIzawa skipped a few steps as a time as he made his way down the stairs, "Get to the point."

"It was a trigger deal, Eraser."

Aizawa stopped in his tracks, barely catching himself on the railing. He felt his breathing halt and a sinking feeling in his gut.

Underground heroes around Japan had been on the hunt for the organization behind trigger for almost two years now. Two years, and all they'd gotten was a few people who had been tricked into buying and using the drug. If there was one thing that was certain about the entire operation, it was that the people behind it were very, very dangerous.

When Aizawa started moving again, it was on slightly uneasy feet, "How many died?"

The operator paused for a moment, then: "No casualties. Eraser, you won't believe it, we got the dealer."

Aizawa started off at a sprint.

* * *

The scene of the crime was an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the ward, a place that nobody had any business being at at one in the morning. Police cars lined the entire street, and at least three other underground heroes other than Aizawa himself.

"A Cleanser." Aizawa repeated, looking at one of the other heroes in disbelief.

"He's on his way to the holding cell as we speak, if you don't believe me."

The entire situation had turned from a normal incursion to a shitshow at the drop of a hat.

One Shinsou Hitoshi had been around the area taking a walk, unable to sleep due to insomnia. He'd stumbled across the deal, and things had gone south quick, leading to a pistol being aimed at his head.

Then, a person, described as a boy in a cloak, came in through the window, beating down the dealer within seconds, as well as stopping the two boys who were supposed to be the buyers from escaping, before fleeing.

A drug deal he could handle.

A vigilante he could handle.

Both of those things at the same time he could handle.

What he could _not_ handle was the fact that it was both of those things with the added factor of it being a _trigger deal_.

Trigger was a quirk enhancing drug, one that could turn a mundane quirk into something menacingly powerful for a short duration. As a side effect, those who used it would become exceptionally violent while under the influence of the enhancer. Over the last two years, he'd had his fair share of run-ins with the drug, but the problem had always been tracking the dealer. Those who were affected frequently had memory loss of the event, and even if they did remember something, it wasn't enough to help track down who was working behind the scenes.

They'd tried everything, moles, fake deals, the whole nine yards, and they'd come up with _nothing_.

Now, all that was changing.

"A Cleanser," Aizawa repeated to himself. A Cleanser was the word that a very certain, very _powerful_ man gave to his underlings. A man who went by Overhaul, full name Chisaki Kai. A Cleanser dealing trigger was a very telling sign of who exactly was the one behind the entirety of the trigger operation.

"A Cleanser," AIzawa said again with a sigh, "I don't have the energy for this right now. I'll organize a meeting where we can go over the details of that side of this entire thing. For now…" he trailed off.

He looked up into the misty sky, not even able to see the stars through the fog.

 _The vigilante_ , Aizawa realized, something in his mind clicking. There was a very low chance that the vigilante just happened to be passing by to stop literally one of the most dangerous drug deals there could possibly be. Odds are, this vigilante, whoever they were, knew about the deal beforehand.

Which meant they knew something about the entire situation, information that could prove incredibly useful.

"Move nightly patrols to the surrounding area. We need to find that vigilante."

* * *

Izuku tossed a coin and pushed, launching himself slightly upwards. He stopped his push, landing lightly on the window ledge outside of his room. He lifted up on the lip of the window, pulling it open and stepping outside. He'd left it just open enough such that he could make open it from the outside.

The moment he was back inside, he sank to his knees, breathing heavily. The entire way home, he'd been in panic mode, barely able to keep his thoughts on the steel jumps. Even still, he'd hit a few walls and stumbled a few times on the way home.

It wasn't until _after_ he stepped in that he'd realized the magnitude of his actions. Not only had he gone up against a person with a _gun,_ but the other crimes he'd committed in a few simple moments could land him weeks of community service at best, jail time at worst. Destruction of property from the window he'd broken, unauthorized quirk use, and, if they pressed charges, assault against not only the man with the gun, but the middle schooler he'd knocked down.

It took at least a few minutes of manual breathing to calm his nerves enough to think straight. Standing on shaky legs, even with the help of pewter, he walked over to the closet, hanging up the tasseled cloak before collapsing onto his bed.

He couldn't sleep, of that much he was certain. The anxiety from what he'd just done was eating him alive, and even if he wasn't burning pewter, he had a feeling that he was going to have problems getting to sleep. So, he just sat on his bed for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling and, for lack of a better term, wanting to curl up and just die.

He stayed like that for a while, caught up in his own thoughts. Thinking back, he was reminded of how _automatic_ his reaction was. He'd seen the gun, and the next thing he knew, he was inside, the window behind him shattered. The moment he'd seen somebody else in danger, all of his thoughts, all of his insecurities, all of his unease disappeared.

The thing was, despite all the _bad_ parts that came with what he'd just done, if he could go back in time, he'd have done the same thing a million times over. Something inside, something rooted deep down in who he was, couldn't stand the thought of that purple haired boy with a bullet hole in his skull.

Maybe that's just part of who he was.

 _Tap._

Izuku perked up, sitting up and tearing his eyes off of the ceiling. He looked around, flaring tin.

 _Tap._ the noise came again, this time to Izuku's right. This time, the noise had a sort of plinking noise to it, like something small tapping against glass.

 _Tap_. Izuku saw it this time, a small object flying out of the mist and hitting his window, before bouncing off and flying off into the fog. Frowning, Izuku walked over, unlatching the lock and pulling open the window. He flared tin, looking out into the mists.

When Izuku looked down, he saw the culprit.

"Are you going to come down or am I going to have to come up there?" Yaoyorozu asked, one hand holding a pile of pebbles. She was wearing what looked to be sweatpants and a way oversized tee shirt.

Izuku just looked at her in shock for a moment, trying to process what exactly was happening. Only when Yaoyorozu threw _another_ pebble at him did he sigh and turn around, grabbing his coin pouch off of the table next to him and climbing out the window.  
He flicked a coin over the edge and jumped, slowing himself and gingerly landing a few seconds later. Izuku stood, brushing some dust off of his shirt, before turning to Yaoyorozu.

She was a few feet away, her arms crossed in front of her, and an eyebrow raised. Eventually, she rolled her eyes and gestured to the sidewalk, where there was a bench lying in wait. Izuku followed her over and sat down, feeling the mist lick off of his skin.

"So…" he eventually started, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "What are you doing throwing pebbles at my window at three in the morning?"

Momo let out a yawn, leaning back on the bench, "I would have thrown you a spoon, but that probably would have broken the window."

"That's not what I asked."

"I know," Momo said, "I couldn't sleep, and I saw a very certain _someone_ fly in their window for the fourth night in a row, so I decided to come say hi."

Izuku sighed, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his knees. "Sorry about what happened at lunch."

Momo, to Izuku's astonishment, just snorted, "Yeah, you should have heard the excuse that I had to come up with to tell the nurse why you left school early without coming to see her. If I remember correctly, it involved projectile vomiting and spoiled seafood."

Izuku blanched, "You covered for me? After I left you hanging like that?"

"That's what a friend would have done, right?" Momo shrugged.

Izuku immediately grimaced, looking away. They sat in silence for a few moments, not sure how to continue. Eventually, Momo was the one that piped up.

"Tonight is the fourth night in a _row_ that I've seen you come back in early in the morning. Do you even sleep?"  
Izuku just shook his head, "I don't need to."

"I could fit my groceries in the bags under your eyes, Midoriya." she deadpanned, "How do you even go for so long without sleeping? Even getting only a couple of hours of sleep a night takes its toll on someone."

"Pewter keeps me awake." Izuku said simply, "Plus, I've got to play catch-up. Everyone else had their quirk for years, I've had mine for _less than two weeks_. If I want to even stand a chance at getting into Yuuei, I've got to practice."

"Yuuei?" Momo sat up a little more, "You want to get into the Yuuei hero program?"

Izuku gulped. "I know it sounds stupid, and I probably won't get in, and everyone else has a better shot at getting in than I do, but it's the hero school that All Might went to, and so it's where the best of the best learned, which means that it's where I need to go."

"What a coincidence." Momo said simple, "I also want to go to Yuuei, so let's get in together!"

"Kacchan won't be happy to hear another person wants to go to Yuuei," he chuckled, then frowned. His mind flashed back to the warehouse, and he felt the blood drain from his face. He had to flare pewter to keep himself from wavering.

"Midoriya?" Momo asked, seemingly having noticed his sudden distress, "Is something wrong?"

"I made a mistake tonight, Yaoyorozu. I made a very big mistake and I don't know what to do." Izuku said, leaning forwards and putting his elbows on his knees.

A moment of silence, then: "Do you want to talk about it?"

It may have been his sleep deprived brain, or it may had been the vulnerable state that he was in due to the shock, but Izuku could feel himself start to fall apart at the seams. There was so much going on at once, so much stuff to think about, that he just couldn't keep it in anymore.

He told Yaoyorozu everything about the night's events. He started from the point where he ran away from her on the school roof to when he stopped the man from shooting the purple haired boy.

"I'm scared," he said, "I'm scared that something will happen, that I'll get found out and my future as a hero will be forever ruined. No hero program will ever accept a person with a vigilantism charge on their record." he let out a little nervous chuckle.

Yaoyorozu sat for a few moments, and Izuku just _knew_ that she was judging him. She was going to leave him alone, call him out for his mistakes, and leave him.

When Momo's words came, they were soft. "Would you change what you did?"

Izuku looked up from where his eyes had been planted on the concrete, looking at Yaoyorozu in confusion, "What?"

"I asked if you would do it again. Would you save the boy from the gunshot again, if you were given the chance to redo everything?"

"Yes," Izuku said without missing a beat.

Yaoyorozu smiled back, "Then I don't see the problem."

"But I-" Izuku started, but Momo cut him off.

"You did what you thought would be the best, given the situation that you were in. Midoriya, you saved that boy's _life_. Damn what the law says, tonight, you were a _hero_ , even if just for that one person."

 _Hero,_ the word echoed in Izuku's mind for a moment.

` It was the word that encompassed everything that he wanted, a profession, a title, and an attribute, wrapped up into one title. There were heroes that were in it for the money, the ones that were heroes by profession, there were those who were saved by a hero, and to those people, they were heroes by title, and lastly, there were those who were heroic by attribute, those who did what was right, because it was right.

Izuku wanted to be all three kinds of hero.

And so, the word ringing through his mind, it gave rise to an indescribable feeling, originating from deep inside of him.

"No," he found himself saying, "I'm not a hero."

Yaoyorozu shifted, but made no move to interrupt her.

"Heroes don't put on faces, heroes don't lie to those close to them out of fear that they'll be left behind. Heroes don't break the law, and heroes don't change themselves based on who they're talking to. I'm no hero, I'm a fake."

"You're not - "

"You don't get to tell me what I am!" Izuku suddenly shouted, standing up from the bench. His mind was cloudy, "How can you know who I am, you met me a week ago?"

Yaoyorozu had jumped back at his sudden outburst, but otherwise, stayed but on the bench.

"How can you know who I am," Izuku said again, this time softer as he felt his knees become wobbly under his weight, "if I don't even know who I am?"

He sunk to his knees. "Fourteen years ago, I arrived at Inko Midoriya's doorstep, wrapped up in a weird looking cloak. I don't know who my biological parents are, they couldn't trace my genes to anyone in the database. I don't know my own birthday, and I don't know where I came from. My hair is naturally black, and my eyes are brown. My skin is paler than most people, and so I stick out in the crowd. I'm not Japanese, that much is certain." Izuku started ranting, listing things off of his fingers.

"I hide what I really look like. I dye my hair, and I wear contacts, all so that I can look like my _dead adopted mother,_ just so I can look at least a little bit _normal,_ " Izuku took a breath, "I hide who I am, so much that I don't even really know who I am inside anymore. When I talk to people, I show them the personality that they _want_ to see. If it's a school bully, I'll show them the submissive, useless, powerless Deku that they want. If it's MIss Sakura, I'll show her the completely average, normal middle school kid so that she doesn't have to worry about me. When I'm alone, I distract myself with hero news so that I just have something to obsess over until I have another person to show a personality to."

Yaoyorozu was sitting normally again, a look of concern plastered on her face, but unmoving.

"These powers," Izuku continued, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a coin. He flared steel and shot it from his grasp as hard as he could, where it embedded itself in a nearby tree,. "I don't think they're a quirk. Actually, I don't _know_ what they are, because I don't have a quirk factor, and I've gotten multiple DNA tests to prove it. I somehow have these special abilities despite all the science we know suggesting otherwise."

Izuku finally collapsed, breathing heavily with his hands and knees on the pavement. He sat for a moment, reeling in all the confusing, overwhelming emotions swirling around his head. All that existed was him and the concrete in front of his eyes.

Then, a set of arms wrapping around him.

Izuku gasped, looking up to see Yaoyorozu pulling him into a hug. Izuku had neither the emotional nor physical energy at the moment to resist. So, instead, he just melted into her arms, feeling the ghosts of tears well up at the edges of his eyes.

They just sat there for a moment while Izuku collected himself. Eventually his breathing slowed, and he got a grasp on his wild thoughts, reining them in. Only then did Momo pull away, sitting on on her knees on the concrete a couple of feet away.

Izuku opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Before he could try again, Yaoyorozu spoke up.

"You just looked like you really needed a hug." she said simple, flashing a smile. Izuku snapped his mouth shut, nodding softly, pulling himself to his feet so that he could get back on the bench.

Momo did the same, taking a place next to him on the bench, just like she had before his outburst. He had no idea what had caused his emotions to go all over the place like that, and he felt slightly lightheaded.

"Can I tell you a story?" Momo eventually said softly. Izuku turned to her for a moment of confusion, before nodding quickly. Momo took a deep breath, as if to steady herself.

"I know that I've already told you this part before, but bear with me for a moment. When my parents split, it was rough on both me and my mom. My father seemed to have no emotional attachment whatsoever to the entire ordeal, to the point that he didn't even fight for my custody, he just gave it over," Momo started, "The following weeks were hard on my mom. She'd been devastated by the breakup, and for a time, I was the only emotional support she had.

"As time went on, it got to the point where my entire home life was dedicated to trying to make her feel better. Even when I was struggling on the inside, even when it was hard, I puit on a smile for her, and acted as her pillar to lean on. She was the only one working, so I made dinner every night, and the nights that she cried, I came to her room to help her out. The reason I was homeschooled was because I didn't have the time to go to school during the day. I self-studied, and did everything around the house that needed to be done, just so that my mother wouldn't have to worry very much. Things went on that way for a while, all the way up until she met my stepdad."

Momo paused for a moment, and Izuku swore he could see her nails digging into the palms of her hands. Eventually, she continued, "I thought that things would get better after that, and they did for a little while. I don't know if than man was someone she truly loved, or if he was just the only person other than me that she even had, but she clung to him like glue to paper. Even when he got violent.

"You see, my mother wasn't the only one he was violent towards when he got drunk. He yelled at me so many times, I couldn't have counted them, even if I wanted to. He'd get set off on the smallest of things, like the broth in his soup being a bit too salty, or his shoes not being in the right spot when he was about to leave in the morning. He'd get set off if you even _looked_ at him in the wrong way, or if you weren't the perfect daughter, doing what he wanted, when he wanted, and how he wanted it. It was horrible."

Izuku frowned, not sure where the story was headed, but he stayed silent. Momo was staring at the ground a few feet in front of them, her expression thoughtful.

"So, if being myself isn't what he wanted, if it is what got either me or my mother hurt, then I just couldn't be myself. I acted like his perfect daughter, I put on a face, if you will. I did things his way, even when every bone in my body didn't want to listen. Day in and day out, I put on a face, and at some point, the lines between who I was acting like and who I really was blurred," she took a trembling breath, "I know what it feels like, Izuku. I know what it feels like to not know who you are when you let down your barriers. It sucks, and it can get confusing, but that's just life. Things get hard, and things get confusing, and what you need to do is push past it, and make decisions, and sometimes, part of making those decisions is accepting your flaws."

Momo looked Izuku in the eyes, her expression dead serious, "That man changed me, Midoriya. I put on a face for so long that it changed who I am, and now I've just got to accept it as part of who I am, and move forwards. Let me tell you who _I_ see when I look at you, Midoriya," she said, "I see a boy who cares enough about those close to him to not want to worry them with his troubles, so he tells his caretaker that he's okay, when he really isn't. I see someone who is smart enough to realize what the bullies want, and give them what will cause the least damage in the long run. I see someone who, deep down, under all of the 'fake faces' and all of the confusion, still has something so fundamental to who they are that they'd risk their life to save a person in need. It's not putting on faces, Midoriya, it's just part of who you are."

Momo finished by putting her hand on Izuku's shoulder and looking him dead in the eyes. Izuku just stared for a moment, trying to take everything in.

"I -" he eventually broke the silence, "I don't know what to say."

It was the truth, he could not come up with words to describe the feeling in his chest. It was like he'd been called out , but at the same time, it had been done in a constructive and supportive manner, so much so that it made him think, _what have I been doing?_

"Just...think about it for a while," Momo said, standing, "Letting more people in might help, being alone tends to make some things difficult." she took a deep breath.

"Don't worry that you aren't giving people what they want. Give them who you are, and let that be enough."

The words echoed in Izuku's mind, inexplicably resonating with him. _Give them who you are, and let that be enough._ He needed some time to think.

Momo walked behind the bench, seemingly heading towards her house, "Midoriya," she called, "get some sleep, too. You look like you really need it."

Izuku just nodded in response. She was probably right, he needed sleep. Yet, her words loomed over his mind, and he had the feeling that even if he stopped burning pewter, he wouldn't be able to get a minute of sleep.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow." she finally said, walking off. Izuku let out a little smile, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like having someone he could call a friend might not be so bad, afterall.


	7. Chapter 7: Friendship

**Friendship**

* * *

Izuku _should_ have gone to bed after he got back into his room. Between more than a week of no sleep and the events of that night, he could feel himself tearing apart at the seams. His heart to heart with Momo had mentally drained him, and he wanted nothing more than to lay down and forget all about everything for a few hours.

Yet that was exactly why he _couldn't_ lay down and fall asleep. He had too many things to think about, too many things to consider. Going to sleep on Momo's words left a bad taste in his mouth, and he had some serious self reflection to do. Thus, he refreshed his stock of pewter and revelled in the warm feeling in his stomach.

* * *

Izuku felt slightly uneasy on his walk to school the next morning. He constantly felt like turning around, as if there were someone watching him. Every time he looked over his shoulder, however, he saw nothing. Shaking off the unease, Izuku continued his walk to school.

As he sat alone on the bus, Izuku felt his thoughts drift to his conversation with Yaoyorozu the previous night, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized the truth to her words. The combination of stress and unease had gotten to his head, and he wasn't the only one that was having problems. Everyone had their demons, and he needed to tackle his own, just like everyone else. Still, part of him dreaded facing Yaoyorozu. The conversation they'd had was extremely personal, not a lot of people talked about those sorts of things, especially with people they hardly knew.

Izuku shook his thoughts clear once again, noticing how difficult it was to focus despite the pewter burning in his stomach. While he didn't feel _physically_ tired, all of his mental processes were becoming more and more difficult. He found himself spacing out more, and focusing was an issue, especially when there was a lot going on. He could help himself focus a little at a time by flaring tin, but he couldn't keep that up, since the boost to his senses only served to overwhelm him.

Eventually, he made it to school, and he didn't even look up from the ground as he walked to the classroom. Izuku was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice someone sneak up behind him until there was a hand on his shoulder.

On instinct, Izuku reached inside his school jacket for his belt, where a pouch of coins was tied to his waist. At the same time, he jumped back, letting his pewter enhanced legs carry him a couple of meters away, whipping around to face the assailant...only to see a very confused Yaoyorozu, her hand held in the air where his shoulder had been moments earlier. Izuku let himself relax, taking his hand out of his jacket and relaxing his posture. She just stared at him for a second before breaking into laughter.

"A bit jumpy, huh?" she said. The students that had stopped to watch the whole situation unfold went back to whatever they'd been doing before, seemingly having lost interest.

"Sorry," Izuku mumbled, "You scared me."

"I can tell." she said. Izuku flushed, but walked over to Yaoyorozu, closing the gap between them. Izuku checked his phone for the time, seeing that they only had a few minutes before class started.

"You didn't sleep, did you?" Momo said, turning to walk next to Izuku towards the third-year classrooms. Izuku fell into stride next to her, scratching at the back of his neck nervously.

"How can you tell?"

"The bags under your eyes are darker than my hair," Momo said simply with a sigh.

They walked in relative silence to their classrooms, Izuku unsure how to clear the air about the discussion from the previous night, Yaoyorozu seemingly unbothered.

Eventually, they arrived at their destination, and Momo moved to open the door to her classroom.

"Wait!" Izuku said, and Momo froze, her hand on the handle, "about last night…"

Yaoyorozu just shook her head, "What we talked about last night is for you to think about on your own. As for whether you want to be friends or not...well, if your answer is yes then meet me for lunch on the roof," and with that she opened the door and disappeared into the classroom. Izuku stood in the hall, his mouth open as if he were frozen mid-sentence, looking at the door. Eventually, the warning bell rang, pulling Izuku from his shock.

As he speedwalked to his classroom as to avoid being late, Izuku cursed to himself under his breath.

 _She picked the roof on_ purpose! _She knows I eat lunch up there, so she made it so that if I wanted to tell her no, I'd have to go out of my way to find another place to eat._ Izuku sighed, well, _it's not like I have any other plans…_

* * *

Aizawa crashed into his bed for the first time in at least thirty-six hours. He'd gone straight from one patrol to the situation regarding the vigilante and Overhaul's Cleanser, only to go straight back onto patrol duty until morning to search for the vigilante. Of course, they hadn't been able to find the culprit in the area, and based on Shinsou Hitoshi's report, the vigilante had some sort of mobility Quirk.

Pulling one all nighter wouldn't have been an issue if he hadn't _already_ been awake for nearly a day straight at that point. A patrol, then an entire day of meetings with Yuuei for what teaching duties he still had, and then right back to patrol.

Point was, Aizawa was _exhausted_. He fell straight onto his bed in his small studio apartment, not even bothering to take off his hero costume. He knew it would be mere moments before he passed out, so he decided to run over all the facts about the case that they knew.

The vigilante had come across a Trigger drug deal, and whether it was coincidental or not was yet to be determined. Otherwise, the vigilante seemed to be a kid, most likely middle school or high school, and they had some sort of quirk that allowed them to move around quickly and easily. The only description they had to go off was their height and general stature, since they'd hidden their face with some sort of cloak.

Aizawa's agency was currently running the description through nearby school rosters, while cross referencing quirks to possibly narrow down the possibilities. Perhaps they'd come up with a few matches, and they'd just bring Shinsou Hitoshi in to verify their identity, and things would get squared away nice and quickly.

Odds are, though, it wasn't going to be that simple. Which meant less sleep for him. With a groan, Aizawa buried his head into his pillow, already feeling himself being pulled towards unconsciousness.

This wasn't the first young vigilante that he'd dealt with and they all tended to be one of three things. First, and most common, were those who, for whatever reason, couldn't quite make it as heroes, yet still wanted to try to do _something_ , not knowing that that _something_ usually threw a wrench in the gears of actual hero work. Those were the easiest to deal with, since usually all it took to correct the behavior was a hit on the knuckles.

The second type of vigilante was the most annoying, the kind that got in over their heads, or had some sort of twisted view of 'justice'. These are the ones that take themselves to be the judge, jury, and executioner. The types who use their abilities to act in what they see as 'right', usually ending up killing villains, or get too deep in an organized criminal organization, and stir up shit they shouldn't be. Stendhal, early in his career, was one of these.

Then, you had the third kind of vigilante. The kind where they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and just did what they saw as best in the situation they were dealt. They acted off of instinct, doing what they say as right in the moment. These types of vigilantes were...well, Aizawa had a soft spot. Most of them ended up going into the hero industry.

It was how he'd started off, after all.

Sunlight streamed through Aizawa's blinds as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Izuku weaved a coin between his fingers as he waited for the bell that signaled the end of the first half of the day. He wasn't sure if he was looking forward to lunch or dreading it. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it was a bit of both. On one hand, he'd made up his mind about the entire situation. He knew what he needed to do, not only to be fair to Yaoyorozu, but to help himself.

On the other, he was worrying about was taking that first step. The first step was always the hardest, and he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about going to the roof at lunch.

Izuku noticed people fidgeting around the room, so he looked up at the clock to check the time, and sure enough, the bell was going to ring any second now. He barely cut off his tin in time to save himself from the sudden deafening noise. Izuku took his time gathering his things and putting them into his bag as the rest of his class funneled out of the room.

Then, he arduously pushed his way through the hallway to the staircase, heading up to the roof. With pewter's help, he could have made it up the stairs in moments, but he let himself take the steps slowly, as if he were giving himself time to turn back. Eventually, he made it to the top of the stairwell, to the door that led to the roof of the school.

Taking a deep breath, before he convince himself otherwise, before his arms could shake or his mind froze up, Izuku pushed open the door to the roof. Looking out onto the pavillion, he could see Yaoyorozu leaning up against the railing a few feet away, eating from a bento box.

She looked up from her meal, then smiled. For some reason, Izuku felt his unease wash away, and the emotional weight pushing down on him lessened. He even found himself standing up a bit straighter.

"You showed up!" She said, before turning back to her lunch. Izuku shut the door behind him and started to walk over to where she was standing.

"I couldn't exactly leave you hanging," he smirked, "Plus, I eat lunch here. As if I'd let the new kid steal my spot."

Momo just chuckled in response, reaching into her bento box and pulling something out. A moment later, she threw it right at Izuku.

On instinct, Izuku flared steel and reached out, a blue line shooting directly at the object. He hit it with a light push, and all of its forward momentum was nullified, causing whatever the object was to clatter straight to the ground, halfway between Izuku and Momo. Extinguishing steel, Izuku inspected the object.

It was a spoon, bent in multiple places, presumably caused by steel-pushes on multiple occasions. Momo spoke up. "You're jumpy, as always."

"Can you blame me?" Izuku sighed, leaning over to pick up the spoon, "what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Keep it as a commemoration of the start of our friendship."

Izuku just smiled and shoved the malformed utensil into his pocket, before finally joining Yaoyorozu at the railing, pulling out his own lunch, before sliding to the ground. He picked at the food for a bit, not exactly sure how to continue the conversation.

Eventually, Momo slid to the ground as well, sighing. "Thank you," a pause, "for coming up here, I mean. I was worried that you wouldn't show."

"I nearly didn't," he said, before pausing, realizing the implications of his words, "Not that I didn't want to or anything, it's just that, well...I've never really done the 'friends' thing before." Momo just giggled a little bit, before settling into a soft hum.

Then, for a little while, they just...talked. Momo let Izuku rant about a few recent hero fights, and she talked about some of the research she was doing in order to help use he quirk better, at which point Izuku promptly pulled out his notebook and started filling out a page for her.

"So, why didn't you just make something really expensive like gold and then sell it to help your family when things were rough?" Izuku asked, scribbling down notes on the page as he talked.

"Well, first of all, it's illegal. Then, even if I wanted to mess up the economy like that, the quirk registry has me on record. If I even tried pulling a stunt like that, police would be at my door by the end of the day," Momo said, "Even commercial quirk use has to be regulated. I know a guy who runs an ice cream shop, and he had to get a certification saying he was allowed to use his ice quirk to keep the ice cream cold."

Izuku paused his writing, "I kind of forgot how strict quirk law is. I've never really had to worry about it."

A snort. "Well, you might want to get that 'quirk' of yours registered sometime soon. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to withhold information like that."

Izuku just nodded, turning back to the notebook.

Before they knew it, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour. "Already?" Izuku said, slapping his notebook shut and stuffing it in his bag.

"You know what they say," Momo said, putting her things away as well, "time flies when you're having fun."

Izuku just hummed, raising his eyebrows a little. He finished packing his bag and sprung to his feet, turning to Momo, who just looked at him in a slight moment of...not shock, but mild surprise?

"Are you burning something?" she said, resuming packing her bag up.

Izuku paused, caught off guard by the use of the term, before nodding. "Why?"

"You stood up with enough gracefulness to make a professional dancer swoon," she said simply, with a shrug, "You shouldn't burn so often, you might get addicted to it or something."

Izuku rolled his eyes, walking to the door leading from the roof and opening it, "It's not _drugs_."

Momo raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything, stepping inside the door Izuku was holding open. They walked down the stairs, and eventually Izuku came across his classroom.  
Before he left, he turned to Momo one last time. "I'll meet you by the front gate and we can walk home?"  
Momo smiled, "I'll see you there!"

* * *

Izuku sat on his bed that night, looking out the window. He wasn't tired (though, that was probably pewter's fault), so he'd kind of just lounged around his room, not sure what to do. Over the last couple of weeks, going out at night had become such a staple to his nightly routine that _not_ going outside felt...wrong somehow.

He couldn't exactly explain it, but part of him just wanted to throw on the tasseled cloak, throw open the window, and jump out of it with a pouch of coins at his hip and a stomach full of steel. Something about soaring through the mist just felt so...natural to him, like it was something that he'd been born to do.

Yet, here he sat, inside while the mists swirled outside of the window, as if taunting him, even though he _knew_ it would be a bad idea to go out.

 _I need to lay low for a few days._ He told himself. As important as practicing with his metals was, it hadn't even been a day since his...encounter at the warehouse. He knew how hero agencies worked, and so he knew that a variety of heroes, underground and otherwise, would be in the area, looking for a vigilante.

The Hero Association took vigilantes _very_ seriously, and the last thing he wanted was to get rolled up with a vigilantism charge. He was _sure_ that would _definitely help_ his chances of getting into any hero program anywhere, especially one as important as Yuuei.

So, he just let out a sigh, falling back into his bed and looking over at the clock.

 _One in the morning,_ he thought, studying his ceiling, _I COULD get some sleep, like what Yaoyorozu suggested_.

He considered it for a moment, before quickly discarding the idea. He didn't feel tired, and he didn't feel like turning off his pewter, since he'd gotten used to the various benefits it gave him. _Maybe it is a_ little _like a drug_

Izuku's eyes were drawn to the window once more, and the swirling fog that lied beyond. Once again, he felt a gravitation to it, as if the mists were calling to him. Sitting inside just didn't feel _right_. Izuku looked over at his closet, pondering.

 _I suppose that a walk could be fine._ He thought, pulling himself off of the bed. He threw on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. As much as he liked the tasseled cloak (another attachment he couldn't exactly explain), he knew it would be a dead giveaway. It would be much safer to just go in a sweatsuit.

Plus, he wasn't steel jumping tonight, he was just out for a leisurely stroll.

* * *

Despite the fact that he was just out for a walk, he still brought his metals, just to be safe. They sat in pouches, attached to his belt, hidden by his slightly-too-big sweatshirt, ready to be used at a moment's notice, in the case that he needed to defend himself or something.  
Otherwise, the moment that he'd stepped out into the misty night, he'd felt better. The cool, damp mist swirled around him, licking off of his clothing, and he felt...safer. It was weird, he couldn't exactly explain the feeling, but when he was out in the mists, he felt shrouded from the outside world. The mists hid him, in a way. He'd spent years trying to make himself invisible, easily ignored, mostly due to his general aversion to other people, but also to help stop the bullying. If they couldn't find him, they couldn't pick on him, after all.

The mists helped in that regard. To most people, the mist was just a thick fog, limiting their vision to a few meters at best. Yet, with tin, he could see anyone else before they could see him, which was good for his peace of mind.

As he walked, he also noticed a few more things about the mists. He still had no idea what had brought on the phenomenon, as it had meteorologists bewildered, but for some reason, it felt...alive. It didn't enter buildings, though that could be due to the heat causing it to evaporate. At the same time, the mists _moved_. They swirled around him as he walked, as if they were reacting to his presence. Streams sometimes followed him inside after a night out, and it curled around him when he was actually out in it.

Despite all the things he still didn't know about the mists, he still felt at home. He'd rather spend a night out in the mist than a night in his own bed.

Izuku also liked walks because it gave him time to think. He could just focus on the rhythmic thudding of his feet against the pavement and allow his mind to drift to whatever topic was at hand. Tonight it was the mists, but sometimes it was school, sometimes hero news. Walks also allowed him to be alone, which was another plus.  
When he took walks, he didn't set a route. He just picked a direction and...went. Eventually, when he wanted to go home, he'd just retrace his steps. Tonight was no different, and eventually he found himself at a park that wasn't too far from his house.

It was a big open space that had this little path that ran down the center that sat under a giant canopy of trees. The hills that surrounded the grove were popular places to go have a picnic, and it wasn't rare to see couples just lay on the grass and stare up at the skies. In general, a pretty nice area.

Izuku headed down the path, rolling a coin over in his hand, threading it between his fingers absentmindedly. He watched his feet for the most part, keeping mind to check the corner of his vision every once in a while, as well as his ears open. He'd gotten used to using tin to help him get a better feel for his surroundings.

Which is why he was completely caught off guard when he ran into _something_ , falling to the ground.

"I-I'm sorry!" Izuku started, looking up to see what he'd run into.  
Only to see nothing.

 _What the hell..._ Izuku checked behind him, then in front of him again. There was nobody around, it was like he'd run into _solid air_. Scrambling to his feet, Izuku took a few steps back, flaring tin and looking around.

Only then did he see it. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, only to see the same thing when he opened them again. It was faint, only a person flaring tin would be able to see it clearly, but it was distinctly _there_.

An outline of a _person_ in the mists. Izuku could hardly see it, and if he didn't focus on it, it blended into the background. Where most of the time, the mist moved and swirled, inside of the outline, the mist was like a solid object, and the mist swirled _around_ the figure, much like it did for Izuku.

Izuku took a startled step back, "W-Who are you?" he stammered out. The outline didn't talk, instead it just stood for a moment, before perfectly mirroring the step back that Izuku had taken. Izuku frowned, tilting his head slightly. Half a second later, the mist-outline tilted its head.

Izuku, his heart beating slightly less fast, raised his left arm, and sure enough, a moment later, the figure followed suit. Izuku continued to move, and the misty being continued to mirror him.

 _What the hell_ Izuku repeated in his head, looking around for any other signs of life, _when I ran into it, it was solid._

Izuku took a tentative step forwards, putting out his hand. The figure quickly followed suit, still mirroring his movements. Curiosity getting the better of him, Izuku inched forwards, bringing his hand towards the figure's.  
A few inches, then a centimeter, half a centimeter, Izuku's heart was beating up into his throat. Then, he touched it, just for a moment. It was cold, like the mist around him, but solid, like a person's hand.

He only got to touch it for a split second, as a moment later, the figure dissolved into thin air, disappearing back into the mists. Izuku stood, completely dumbfounded as to what had just happened.

He knew something had been up with the mists, normal fog didn't act the way that the mists did, especially not coming so often and only at night. But this? This brought it to an entirely new _level_.

Izuku knew that he should be completely and utterly terrified at what had just happened. For all he knew, it could have been someone's quirk, an illusion meant to trick him in some way. Yet, just like everything else related to the mists, he felt...at ease. He wasn't scared of the apparition, as he knew he ought to have been. Curious, yes, but not scared. Even so, there was one thing running through his head, taking up almost all of his thoughts.

 _What the hell was that thing?_

* * *

 _Edit: Changed some of my rampant grammar and spelling issues due to the fact that I wrote this chapter at 1 in the morning, about 3 hours before my flight left._

 _A/N: Hello I'm not dead. Sorry this one is both 1. short 2. took literally forever to come out and 3. maybe a bit non coherent in the last few paragraphs. I go off for vacation in 3 hours and I really wanted to get up an update for y'all before I can't write for YET AGAIN more time. As for why this one took so long, well, I needed some time as a break due to writer's block. I have some really fun plans for the next coming chapters, and it took me literally a month to figure out how I wanted to fill in the gap between where I was and where I want to go. It's a hard median to find, since I didn't want things seeming like filler, while also making it feel substantial enough to be entertaining and fill in the difference. Let me know how you think it went. Anyhow, I'll PROBABLY actually be able to get a normally timed update out, PROBABLY. Look forwards to it in like 2 weeks!_


	8. Chapter 8: Discovery

**Chapter 8: Discovery**

* * *

 _Well here we are, I'm finally back. I told you all that I'm not dead, and that the next chapter was coming, and here it is, finally done at a comfortable 6.3k words. If you don't particularly care why it took 2 months to update, feel free to skip the author's note at the end of the chapter._

 _Also: I don't normally do this type of thing, but this story just hit 400 followers a few days ago. It kinda blows my mind how many people read my story and liked it enough to hit that button. The comments I've been getting on this story in general are also so encouraging, it keeps me writing. So, thanks y'all. Keep on commenting and keep on reading, I hope to keep impressing you._

 _Edit: since it's been a while, someone requested a quick summary of what's happened so far, so here we go: We open up with Izuku as a babe being dropped on Inko Midoriya's doorstep. She wants to keep the baby, Hisashi leaves, Izuku grows up, until he's 4 and told that he doesn't have a quirk factor, an anomaly. On the way home, the train is stopped by villains, and Inko is killed. Izuku recovers from the shock in the hospital, where he finds his one true solace: heroes. Following the incident, Izuku attends school as normal, but over time, he finds that he has some sort of ability to make those around him...softer in a way. He calls it his Luck. One day, Izuku is attacked by a sludge villain, and in a moment of sheer desparation, he tears apart a city street using some sort of power that he'd never felt before, but was similar in nature to his Luck. Following this incident, Izuku looks into things, trying to test out how his Luck works. He discovers that he can swallow metal, and 'burn' it in his stomach to produce different effects. Tin enhances his senses, Pewter enhances his body to be more durable and slightly stronger, iron lets him pull metal towards himself and steel pushes it away, using his body weight as force. He discovers that if he pushes against an object heavier than him, or one that has nowhere to go, the force kicks back and pushes him away instead, or in the case of iron, pulls him towards it. One night, while practicing with tin, Izuku hears a call for help, and rushes two buildings over to find (and stop) a case of domestic abuse. The next day, the girl who he saved reveals herself to be Momo Yaoyorozu, and is going to be transferring in to his school now that she cannot be homeschooled. Momo tells the story of how she was thrust from a rather pompous lifestyle following a rough divorce between her parents. Her mother later remarried to an agressive drunk, and things were bad for a long time until Izuku threw a wrench in the system. Momo starts school, and on the first day insinuates how she wants to become friends with Izuku. He's unnerved by the prospect of letting people in, and freaks out. That night, when he's out practicing steel jumping, he comes across a drug deal gone wrong, and stops it. He gets out, but knows that he's going to be labelled as a vigilante for unauthorized quirk use. He comes back and lets everything out as a vent to Momo, and they have a heart to heart, in which Izuku agrees to try the 'being friends' thing. Izuku decides to lay low for a few days to avoid getting caught and labelled as a vigilante, but one night when he's out in the mists for a walk, he encounters a spirit made of the mist, seemingly sentient, and interacts with it for a little while before it dissapears, which brings us to where we are now._

* * *

After his encounter with the figure in the mist, Izuku stumbled to a park bench on shaky legs. He still wasn't sure if what he'd seen had been real, or if it had just been his tired mind playing tricks on him. Despite pewter's enhancement capabilities, he could feel his exhaustion slowly catching up to him.

 _Fog doesn't just_ do _that_ , he told himself, _it's just water vapor, it can't be alive._

This was the absolute last thing he needed right now; with heroes on his tail, searching for a vigilante, he already had enough to worry about, and now he had to be concerned about the fact that he might be _going insane_. Except, he hadn't simply seen the figure, he'd _run into it_. Now, of course, it was nowhere to be seen, and the mists swirled like they normally did.

For the first time in a while, Izuku felt a rush to get home. For the last few weeks, he'd spent his nights out, the mists present about half the days. Even on the days the mist was absent, he'd been more inclined to stay out and about, rather than sitting alone in his room.  
Getting up off the park bench, Izuku set off towards home, with a bit of a spring in his step. While the entire situation had thoroughly freaked him out, he couldn't help but be curious as well. What was that mist figure? Had it been real, or just a figment of his imagination?  
 _Well, I needed something to do while I lay low,_ he thought, _I guess it's time to catch a ghost._

* * *

"Hey," Izuku said, pulling out his lunch, "have you heard any news about that mist that's been coming out recently?" He and Yaoyorozu were on the roof, making small talk as they picked at their food.

Yaoyorozu frowned. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Don't you think it's odd how foggy it's been this year? Especially considering the lack of rain?"

Yaoyorozu stopped for a moment, then shrugged. "Some years are like that, I guess. I remember hearing on the news one time about a winter where it snowed every day for exactly three months."

"What about how it never comes in buildings, or that it only comes out at night?"

"Evaporation," she said simply, biting into a sushi roll. "Light is a form of heat, and fog is usually just water vapor in the air right around its condensation point. A little bit of heat should cause it to dissipate."  
Izuku frowned, unconvinced. "What about the way that it swirls around you? Normal fog doesn't move around."

This time, Yaoyorozu stopped mid-bite. "What?"  
"You know, when the mist licks off of your skin, and kind of spirals around you when you are standing in it?"

Yaoyorozu slowly continued her bite, "I have no idea what you're talking about," She paused for a moment, "maybe you're just tired and your eyes are playing tricks on you. You still haven't slept."

"Maybe…" Izuku muttered, already mentally tabbed-out from the conversation. Even if he was going insane, and the figure from the mist was just his mind playing tricks on him, he was _sure_ about the mist. It swirled and moved in the night, dancing off of his skin.  
"I could also be wrong," Yaoyorozu tacked on. "You've spent ten times as much time out in it as I have."

Izuku just nodded, lost in his own thoughts.

The next night, Izuku threw on a sweatsuit again and headed out into the mists, tin and pewter burning softly in his stomach. It was a little reassuring when it curled around him, just like it always did. Part of him (even if it was unrealistic) thought that his talk with Yaoyorozu at lunch would have made that fact change, as if it _had_ been just a hallucination made by his tired mind, and knowledge of that fact would've caused it to stop..

With a deep breath, Izuku set off down the street.

His first goal, before anything else, was to find the misty figure he'd run into. He figured that if he could find it again, he might be able to get some information out of the thing, like just what the _hell_ was going on.

He also wanted to confirm that he wasn't going insane, from lack of sleep or otherwise.  
The first step to finding something is to go somewhere associated with that thing. His first (and only) encounter with the figure in the mist had been at the park. He wasn't sure that he'd find anything there, but it was his only lead for now.  
The word 'park' wasn't exactly an accurate description. There weren't any playsets for children, nor flat areas to play games like soccer on. _Open space_ was a better description. It was near to the coast, so anyone that wanted to head down to the beach didn't have to go far, as well as having the perk of the ocean breeze to cool things off. Other than that, it was a few hundred meters in each direction of green hills with a concrete path through the middle, covered by a wooden trellis that vines grew on, stretching from the ground and over the top, acting as a source of shade during the day.

 _This would be a good place to take friends or a date…_ Izuku thought. If he remembered correctly, it _was_ known as a popular first date location, usually for picnics or walks. _But that's not important right now!_ he told himself, shaking his thoughts clear.  
Retracing his steps from the previous night, Izuku set off down the concrete path in the center. If he remembered correctly, he'd run into the spirit (he really wasn't sure what to call it at this point) about halfway down the path.

Izuku walked the path, flaring his tin and looking for disturbances in the mists, only to be met with nothing. He got to the other side of the clearing with not so much as a sign of something living out there. So, he tried again, walking back down the way he came. Again, nothing.  
He walked the streets nearby, looking for any sign of a humanoid shape made of mist, only to be met with a thick, static fog. Izuku continued searching for another hour or so, only to come up empty handed.

Eventually, he started seeing cars on the roads, and checking the time told him that it was about to be morning, and the cars were people either getting up for early morning work, or coming home from graveyard shifts. Begrudgingly, Izuku headed home.

 _Tomorrow night I'll try again,_ he told himself.

* * *

Aizawa was tired.

Of course, that wasn't saying much, considering the fact that he was always tired anyway, but right now he was _exceptionally_ tired. They'd been searching for the vigilante for 4 days now and hadn't picked up a single lead. They weren't even sure where they worked, because they were at least fifty percent certain that the vigilante had taken it upon themselves to disrupt the Cleansers and had been in the area solely because of the deal.

Most vigilantes stuck to one zone, typically a ward or two radius around where they lived. That made searching for them easier, since all they needed to do to catch them was essentially set up patrols within a range. Vigilantes that were more involved were particularly harder to track down, since they didn't confine themselves to the area near where they lived. One example of this type of vigilante was Stendhal, a particularly nasty one from early in his career.

They still weren't sure if they were searching the wrong area, or if the assumptions they'd made were even _correct_ in the first place. Alternatively, their assumptions could be completely irrelevant because the vigilante could just be laying low, waiting for things to blow over before they got back to work.

All that aside, over the course of the last four days, Aizawa had been working twelve-hour night patrols, sleeping for six, and then dealing with meetings for the remaining six, split between Yuuei's staff meetings, and his own agency.

 _Speaking of meetings…_ AIzawa brought his attention away from his own thoughts, and back to the topic at hand.

" - and the recommendation exams will be in two months," Nezu said, "Will there be any staff apprentices this year?"

A moment of silence passed, and then Snipe cleared his throat. "I believe that nobody on staff has time for any apprentices during the school year."

Aizawa tightened his lips as Nezu nodded. Then, to his dismay, the principal turned to him. "Aizawa, you're the only one without a class, do you have an apprentice?"

"I'm too busy working a vigilante case at the moment," he stated simply. Nezu frowned for a moment, then nodded slowly.

Nezu turned to the rest of the table. "While heroes are not required to take apprentices on, it is a very good experience for both the aspiring hero, as well as the hero working with them."

Aizawa had heard this lecture at least four separate times since he expelled his entire class, and a few times before that as well. Nezu had been pressuring him to take on an apprentice for months. In reality, Aizawa wasn't exactly _opposed_ to taking a student on, but he wasn't jumping at the idea either. He wasn't the type of person that wanted to just take on some random middle schooler and help train them. If he took someone on, it would because he saw _potential_ in them, and showed that they had what it took to become a hero.

There was also the fact that he legitimately did not have the time right now, not with the vigilante hunt in full swing.

"In other news," Nezu continued, "We will be having a new teacher joining us in the spring. Toshinori, would you care to come in and introduce yourself?"

* * *

"No luck?" Yaoyorozu asked on their walk to school the next morning.  
Izuku shook his head. "There weren't any mists for two nights, and I couldn't find a single thing last night."

"Are you certain that it wasn't just part of your imagination?"

Izuku pursed his lips. "I - " he stopped himself, "I don't know. I could have sworn that I saw it, but I'm starting to doubt my own head. Maybe I really do need to get some sleep."  
"I've been saying that for a week…" Yaoyorozu muttered.

"I'm starting to run out of pewter, too. I've only got a few day's worth left. Unless..." he turned and raised an eyebrow at her.

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation. "I'm not making you more, I refuse to support your bad habits."

Izuku let out a dramatic sigh, kicking a rock at his feet off to the side of the sidewalk. They walked for a few more minutes, making small talk on the way to school. Izuku kept his pewter on to keep him awake and alert, but he brought his tin down to barely more than a simmer to help make the noise a bit more manageable.

Due to the lack of tin, Izuku didn't even notice someone coming up behind him until he was being shoulder checked to the side. "Out of my way, Deku!" Bakugo called as the boy blew past the pair. Izuku had no doubts that without the help of pewter to retain his balance, he'd have fallen to the ground.

As Izuku watched the blonde blow by him, something welled up in his chest. As much as he respected Bakugo for his power and drive to become a hero, sometimes he just wanted to punch the blonde in the face.

In a fit of petty revenge, Izuku burned iron. Blue lines shot out from his chest towards different metal sources around him, but he ignored most, instead focusing on a particular set of lines that stretched towards Bakugo's feet, and waited for the right moment. When Bakugo's right foot lifted slightly into the air to take another step forward, Izuku tugged lightly on one of the lines, Izuku guessed it was either a buckle on the shoe, or metal aglets. Instead of putting his foot forward to take a step, Bakugo's right leg shot backwards, causing him to lose his balance and crash to the ground in a little cloud of dust.

Izuku let himself have a small smirk of victory, then wiped it from his face before Bakugo could see. Just as fast as he'd fallen, Bakugo shot back up, wheeling around. "Who the hell grabbed my leg?" Anyone that _had_ been standing behind Bakugo immediately cleared out, not wanting to get involved with the explosive boy. Bakugo turned to Izuku, his face contorted in rage.

"Was it you, you shitty nerd?"

Before Izuku could open his mouth to respond, Yaoyorozu took a step forward. "You just tripped. I saw it from here."

Bakugo slowly turned to Yaoyorozu, tearing his gaze off of Izuku. "And who the hell are you?" a pause, "Better yet, why are you walking with _Deku_?"

Izuku saw Yaoyorozu's hand twitch by her side, before turning into a fist. "I'm a new student. Now, if you'd please, we want to get to school. On time, preferably."

"Let me give you a tip, new girl," Bakugo said, not budging, "Stay away from Deku. Sticking around a Quirkless nobody like him can only end badly." With that, Bakugo turned to walk away, ending the conversation.

Or, so Izuku thought.

"Who are you to tell me who I should become friends with?" her voice called after him, a bit of sharpness to her tone.

 _This could end up turning really bad, really fast,_ Izuku thought. He'd been around Bakugo since he was a kid, so he'd gotten used to the other's…aggressive attitude. Yaoyorozu, on the other hand, had never even seen the boy before.

Bakugo stopped in his tracks, and Izuku could see his shoulders tighten up. "What?" was all he said, not turning around.

"I –" Yaoyorozu faltered for a second, but was quick to regain her composure, "I said, who are you to decide who I should be friends with?"

Bakugo wheeled around, his face contorted, "Look, new girl, I'll tell you this once, and only once, so you'd better listen well. I'm the top dog at this shitty school, I'm going to get into Yuuei and become a badass hero. Everyone else here is just extras. Deku is worse than an extra. He's quirkless. I'm trying to do you a favor here by telling you to stay away from him. Don't look down on me, got it?"  
Izuku saw Yaoyorozu clench her fist, and she looked like she wanted to say something, but Izuku knew her self confidence wasn't exactly the best. Bakugo, on the other hand, was breathing heavily through his nose in rage. To Bakugo, he probably saw himself as doing Yaoyorozu a 'favor', telling her to stay away from Izuku himself, and the fact that she wasn't accepting it probably irritated him to no end.

 _Alright, it might be time to step in,_ Izuku thought

Yaoyorozu opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by Izuku stepping in between the two. He burned brass, soothing both Bakugo and Yaoyorozu.

"Sorry, Kacchan, You must have lost your balance when I bumped into you. Let's get going, we don't want to be late."

 _Blame it on myself,_ he thought. Izuku had done this plenty of times before, you could get Bakugo to give up if you made it seem like he wasn't at fault, that it was on you. The boy just stared at Izuku for a second, before turning around, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Tch."

Once he was out of range, Izuku let out a breath he'd held in. "Sorry I used brass on you. I didn't want it to get any worse, and that was the quickest way to calm both of you down."

Yaoyorozu let out a breath as well. "It's fine," she paused, "What the hell was that?"

"I'll tell you at lunch. Let's go, or we might actually be late."

* * *

"So, who's the blonde?" Yaoyorozu said between bites of salad.

Izuku let out a long sigh, before launching into the story. He told her about how they'd been friends when they were kids, how Bakugo had gotten a big head once his quirk developed, and where they were now. Yaoyorozu kept quiet for the whole time, but Izuku could see a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"I don't like him," she said after he finished, "He's nothing but a self-obsessed bully."

"I try to avoid him, but when I can't, I just try to get him to go away as fast as I can," Izuku admitted, "Even if I tried to stop him, nothing would happen."

Yaoyorozu shifted, "Couldn't you get teachers involved or something?"

Izuku shook his head, "Most of them just turn a blind eye to whatever he does."

Yaoyorozu let out a huff of displeasure, picking at her salad with her fork, stabbing at the lettuce.  
"If it makes you feel any better," Izuku said, trying to lighten the mood, "I've been able to keep him off my back with brass for the last few weeks."

"It doesn't," she said. "Even if he isn't actually going after you anymore, that doesn't mean that he should just be excused."

This time, it was Izuku's turn to frown. He'd grown up around Katsuki, as had nearly the entire school. They'd grown up around his, for lack of a better word, explosive personality. They'd learned to either ignore or accept the things he did, even when others wouldn't.

Bakugo's parents and peers turned a blind eye to his power fantasy and superiority complex, since it had been there ever since his quirk developed. The combination of a powerful, flashy quirk and the constant positive reinforcement from everyone around him had led to exactly that.

Then, the teachers turned a blind eye to his bullying tendencies, since the kid was extremely smart, excelling in schoolwork, as well as being competent in every other area. His drive to be a hero was something to be admired, and he had both the skills and the smarts to make it, so letting him get away with a little was okay in the teachers' minds.

Of course, Yaoyorozu hadn't grown up around Bakugo. She didn't see the Bakugo _then_ , all she saw was the Bakugo _now_.  
Izuku tried to explain that to her, but as he went on, her frown deepened. "He's just...kinda always been like that," Izuku finished.  
Yaoyorozu pursed her lips for a moment, before letting out a sigh, "I don't like him."

"Not a lot of people do…" Izuku grumbled. They let off a few laughs together before finishing up lunch. As they walked back to class, Izuku could feel a sort of tension in the air, as if Yaoyorozu had wanted to continue to conversation, but thought better of it.

 _I'll have to ask her about it later…_ he told himself, _for now, back to repetitive, boring class._ By this point, Izuku didn't even pay attention to the content anymore. The teacher already spent half of his time rambling about some irrelevant topic, and when he actually _did_ teach, it was usually something Izuku already knew. As of late, he'd had a lot more free time on his hands, and getting ahead on his studies wasn't the worst way to spend it.

Sitting back in his seat, Izuku pulled out a coin from his pouch and began to roll it around his fingers. To occupy his mind, Izuku burned brass and gently pushed on a classmate here and there, just to get practice using the metal in different ways, though, it was mostly just a way to waste away the time.

Eventually, the rest of the class filed in to their seats, and the bell rang.

* * *

Izuku didn't exactly rush back home after school. He normally would walk back with Yaoyorozu, but she was visiting her mother at the hospital today, so he was left to make the trek back alone. He wasn't in a rush to get back, since being home just meant more time that he'd spend cooped up in his room, wasting away the time until he could go out.

He took the long way home, walking down a few side streets between his house and the school, window shopping. More than anything, he was just people-watching, since he wasn't actually planning on buying anything. The only money he had on him was the coins in his pouch that he used for jumping, maybe a few hundred yen in total.

As he watched the crowds go by, Izuku let his mind drift. Eventually, he found himself fidgeting with the pouch of coins at his side, itching to just grab one and toss it at his feet.

 _It's been nearly a week since I've really gone out..._ he thought, _I just need to wait a few more days, then I can go jumping again._

As if on cue, Izuku rounded a corner to see an empty alleyway. Looking up, he saw the lip of the building above would be the perfect height to jump to.

 _If I could just get up there, I could…_ Izuku shook his head, _No, I'm in broad daylight, someone will see_.

Izuku looked to his left, and then to his right, only to see an empty street. Most people were still at work, at least for the next ten minutes or so. There were no windows that faced the alley, so he wouldn't have to worry about getting seen that way.

 _I swear this world is just out to tempt me…_ Izuku thought, giving in. He sped down the alleyway, crouching behind a dumpster. He checked his shoulder, just to be sure, before flicking a coin to the ground and burning steel. Familiar blue lines shot from his chest to various metal sources around him. With a final, third look down the alley behind him, Izuku pushed on the coin beneath his feet.

The vertigo nearly caught him off guard, after a week without practice, but he was able to steady himself enough to not lose control midair. As he neared the rooftop, he let off on his push, and the leftover momentum carried him over the ledge, allowing him to land softly on the ledge.

As soon as he saw nobody was already on the roof, he let out a breath, a mix of contentment and relief.

 _I can't wait until I can get back to jumping, only a few more days and I should be safe._

Izuku paced on the roof, running his hand along the railing, looking down at the street below. Looking at the building he was on, he realized it was an apartment complex, one of the older ones in the area. There was a door that led to the rest of the building from the roof, and the top of the building was just a flat pavillion, he guessed it was often used for smoking.

Being on top of the building gave Izuku...solace almost. He felt...safer, in a way, maybe being on the roof helped because he could be more sure less people were watching him. He liked to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible, and people didn't often look _up_.

 _ **Creak…**_

Izuku was torn from his thoughts by the sound of a metal door pushing open. Izuku whipped around, instinctively flaring steel. A figure pushed out of the doorway, stepping out onto the roof.

It was a man, wearing all black clothing. His long, black hair was unkempt, wavy and long enough to curl slightly around his shoulders. On his chin there was what looked like a week's worth of 5 o'clock shadow, and the bags under his eyes could rival Izuku's own.

 _Apartment complex,_ Izuku reminded himself, trying to put to rest some of his unease, _he's probably just someone who lives here, he's not some enemy or something._

Only as the man stepped out from the doorway did he notice Izuku, frozen from across the roof. The man stopped moving for a second, looking at Izuku as if he were an misplaced piece of furniture. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, he just shrugged and walked out towards the railing, coming to a stop a fair distance away from Izuku.

 _Uhh…_ Izuku thought, _I don't have a way down. I could jump off, but...I'd need to wait until he leaves to do that._ Izuku forced himself to look away from the man, breaking the awkward stare.

* * *

Aizawa woke up from his nap and headed towards the roof to help wake himself up, like he normally did. It wasn't like he smoked or anything like that, he just liked to get a breath of fresh air before having to head back to work.

The apartment complex he lived in was old, and therefore full of people that either worked day jobs, or were shut-ins. That meant that the roof was an easy place for him to go to get some quiet time, maybe watch go crowd watching for a few minutes until he was fully awake.

So, he was understandably confused when there was a kid on the roof.

His tired mind, still not fully present, took a moment to process the out-of-the-ordinary scenario, which led to him giving the kid a blanks tare. He had a middle school uniform on, and messy green hair on the top of his head. He stared right back at Aizawa, wide-eyed for a moment, revealing dark bags under his eyes.

That's all he was able to take in before the kid looked away and Aizawa's mind caught up with the situation.

 _It's not_ that _unusual,_ he told himself, _it's about that time of day where kids are getting out of school, maybe he lives in the complex and wanted to come up here to relax._

With a grunt, Aizawa walked to the other side of the rooftop, leaning up against the railing, making sure to give plenty of distance between him and the boy. He hoped it sent the message that he wasn't interested in interacting.

 _I'll just mind my own business. It's not like I own the roof._

* * *

Izuku twisted a coin between his fingers nervously, trying to keep as composed as possible. Of course, that wasn't exactly the _easiest_ thing to do when he was stuck on the rooftop until the man (who, frankly, looked kind of like a homeless person) left.

So, Izuku just sat there for a while, running a coin between his fingers and trying to dispel some of his nervous energy. He looked over the railing at the crowds passing below, the concentration of people seemingly have increased in the last few minutes.

 _It's rush hour, people are getting off of work_ , he told himself.

Izuku stood there for a while, glancing over every so often. He couldn't see the man's face, but the rest of his body gave the impression of laziness. His shoulders were slouched over, elbows resting on the metal railing. He wasn't smoking or anything, he was simply leaning up against the edge, motionless.

Izuku tore his gaze away, trying to quell his uneasiness.

* * *

Aizawa knew the kid kept glancing over every so often. Odds are, the boy was unnerved by his appearance and how dishevelled it looked. His _normal_ attire looked ragged, much less his "just woke up" self. Still, Aizawa thought it was odd that, if he was so unnerved, why he didn't just up and leave.

The kid had to live in the building, as it required a key to get onto the roof. Though, it was odd that Aizawa hadn't seen him before, the apartment complex was small and mostly full of elderly, it made sense that he'd have seen a middle schooler around.

Aizawa grunted to himself. _I'm not around often, I suppose it's not that far fetched._

Just as he shrugged off the thought, his phone buzzed in his pocket, a reminder to head back downstairs. With a huff, he pulled himself away from the balcony and headed towards the exit of the roof. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he swore he saw the boy stop fidgeting and relax.

Aizawa pulled the heavy steel door open, the noise of metal scraping on concrete filling the air. He stepped inside, letting the door slam behind him, leaving the boy alone on the roof.

* * *

The moment the door closed, Izuku let out a breath he'd been holding in. The absolute last thing he'd wanted was to have to explain his way out of a situation. He'd been running through a plan in his head, one involving a lot of brass and lies. Luckily for him, the man had seemed uninterested.

He gave it a few more seconds, just in case he decided to come back. When the door stayed shut, Izuku made his way over to the alleyway he'd used to get onto the roof, and hopped the railing. He fell for a few feet before pushing on the dumpster to slow his fall, landing softly on the ground.

 _That's the last time I'll be doing that,_ he thought _._ Broad daylight was way too dangerous to be hopping around, considering how easy it would be to get caught, just like he nearly had been moments ago. _I just want to go back out into the mists…_

Yet, he still couldn't. It would be too risky to go out when local heroes were looking for a vigilante. With a frown, Izuku adjusted his backpack and turned the corner to leave the alleyway, disappearing into the crowd of people getting off of work.

* * *

"I'm home," Izuku muttered to nobody in particular as he got back to the foster home. He took off his shoes and hung his backpack on a coat hanger, simultaneously removing his laptop. If the mists came again, he'd be going out to look for the...mist ghost he'd encountered, but if they didn't then he'd need a way to occupy himself all night.

Izuku was about to head upstairs when he heard rustling from the living room area.

The next moment, Miss Sakura's voice called out, "You have a package, sitting on the table."

Izuku wheeled around on the spot, a bit confused. Looking over at the kitchen table, there was a cardboard box, haphazardly closed and marked with his name in big black sharpie. His suspicions were confirmed when he picked up the box to find it was heavier than it looked.

"That clerk must have sent more metals," he muttered to himself, taking the box in the arm that wasn't carrying his laptop and heading for the stairs.

Once in his room, Izuku set down the box and sliced open the tape with the sharp side of one of a key. Sure enough, there was a bunch of different samples of metal inside the box, alongside a note written in some of the sloppiest handwriting.

 _Izuku,_

 _I got a few more spares at the warehouse this week and thought you could use them. I don't know what from the last shipment you were able to use, but I packed in another ingot of pewter, same ratio as last time. I also threw in a few pouches of tin shavings and brass shavings. As for the new ones, there's a bottle full of zinc nuggets, a bar of bronze, and a bunch of unused copper wiring. The bronze and copper are both relatively soft metals, so if you need to shave them down, that file I gave you last time should work. I don't know when the next set of spares will be, because I'm leaving town for a month or so next week, so don't expect any more any time soon._

At the bottom of the note, there was a little sendoff, something that the previous note didn't have.

 _-K_

 _A first initial, maybe? An english character, too…_ he thought, _though, he hadn't exactly looked Japanese, so maybe he's a foreigner_. Izuku shook the thoughts, the identity of the cashier wasn't really all that important, at least not now.

What mattered was the box sitting in front of him. He'd gotten a resupply of pewter, of which he was quickly running out of, as well as more tin and brass. Then, he'd gotten something arguably more important: three new metals he hadn't tried before.

Zinc, bronze, and copper, all metals that could be hiding powers for him to learn, little keys to unlock his future as a hero. One thought was running through his head.

 _I need to get out and test these. Tonight._

He knew it was a really bad idea, the heroes were still looking for a vigilante, and he had no idea if they had his description. He could get in huge trouble if he was found practicing illegally.

 _Maybe I can just keep a low profile,_ he reasoned, _I'll head down to Dagobah beach and try to keep things as quiet as possible._ The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Dagobah was in the opposite direction of the warehouse he'd intervened at, and it was a week since the incident. Patrols would be less strict by now, and even if one did come by, he could pass it off as a midnight stroll at the beach, or community service cleaning up the garbage, or something like that.

So, Izuku sat down and got to work at filing down the bronze and copper into shavings, making pouches for each like he had for other metals. He also took the time to restock his pewter supplies, ensuring he had enough for the entire night. It was slow, annoying work, but pewter ensured his hands wouldn't get tired from using the file so much, plus, he needed to kill time.

Eventually, he finished replenishing all of his metal pouches, tying them to his belt. Pouches of bronze flakes, copper powder, and zinc nuggets sat on his hip. He caught up his notebooks on recent hero activity, and before he knew it, mist was licking at the windows outside.

With a huge smile, Izuku downed a new batch of metals, all except for the new three. He grabbed his water bottle, and headed for the window excitedly. Looking out the glass, he saw the thick grey mist, relaxation washing over him. Looking down at himself, he ensured he had everything he needed.

 _Metals? Check. Water? Check. Coins? Check. Phone? Check. Cloak…._ he stopped. It was probably a really bad idea to bring the cloak. If they had a description of him, the cloak was a defining characteristic. Izuku drew his eyes to the closet where the black tassels hung, not having moved for a week.

Looking back down at himself, Izuku realized just how ridiculous the various pouches looked on his belt. He looked like a handyman, but if instead of tools, he had little baggies. It didn't help that his shirt didn't cover them up all the way, so he was left with the choice to either let his baggy-belt show partly, or all the way by tucking in his shirt. Either way, he looked stupid.

 _The cloak covers the belt…_ it was stupid, he knew it. It wasn't just stupid because of the risk it caused for him, it was also stupid that he was getting self consious over how he looked when, odds were, nobody was going to be seeing him.

Despite it all, he walked over to the closet, tearing the tasseled cloak off of the hanger. He threw it over his shoulders, tying the drawstring and throwing up the hood. Just like it normally did, the tassels stopped right around his feet, seeming to fade into the background. Putting it on felt like a homecoming of sorts, a return to normalcy. Before he could convince himself otherwise, Izuku walked over to the window, pulling it open with a heave.

Izuku burned iron and steel, on top of the pewter and tin that he already had at a simmer. Mist poured into his bedroom from the outside as he pulled himself up onto the windowsill. He stepped out into the night, lightly pushing the window nearly shut, just leaving a big enough crack to open it back up when he got home.

 _Quick trip to the beach to test, then right back,_ he thought to himself, _let's make this quick._

Breathing in the mist, Izuku tossed a coin down and pushed into the air.

* * *

 _I hope you all enjoyed the chapter._

 _Now, as for why I was gone, it's a few reasons. First off, contrary to what normal people have, my summers are far more busy for me than the school year. This last summer I was working a day job, picking up double shifts wherever I could to scrounge up some extra money. On top of that, I was taking summer classes to get some of my graduation credits out of the way, and I've been practicing with my Destiny 2 clan to go professional (I won't disclose the name, as to avoid getting found out). Point is: I've WANTED to write for the last few months, but having the time was scarce, and when I finally DID have time to sit down, I either only got a few hundred words down, or I just didn't because I was so tired and wanted to sleep after a long day._

 _Anyhow, school for me has started back up, which usually means more writing time. I'm gonna set an expectation for myself to get chapters out on schedule, so look forward to it. I (should!) be getting back to a relatively normal update schedule. I'm gonna start by saying every 3 weeks, and if I get the chapter done early, I'll drop it at 2. That being said, I'll see you all in the next one._

 _P.S. Huge thanks to my beta reader, Dewyn. He's been a huge help with fixing the rough patches of the fic, particularly my misuse of commas and periods inside of dialogue. So, uhh, yeah thanks my guy. If anyone of you want to read some of his stuff, he's got a fantasy AU he's currently working on, his name is Dewyn on both FFN and Ao3._

 _NOTE: I'm trying to look for an artist to commisison (I'm not asking for free art) for this story, since I'd like to finally have a cover for it. If you have someone in mind, orwould like to make art for the story yourself, let me know by DMing me a link to their/your page. I'm going for a darker/more realistic style, if that helps._


	9. Chapter 9: Went Too Deep

**Chapter 9: Went Too Deep**

* * *

 _Hello I am not livingn't. Enjoy the long chapter._

* * *

Aizawa stood on the roof of his apartment complex, this time with his hero costume on, The capture bands sat comfortably around his neck, a familiar weight to him. Looking at his watch, he saw that he only had a few minutes before he was supposed to start his patrol, yet another nightlong search for the vigilante.

 _This damned fog,_ he thought, squinting in an attempt to see. It almost seemed to be getting thicker each time it came, though, that could just be his mind playing tricks on him. He was out in it every night, so part of him might just be searching for some sort of change. Either way, it severely limited his vision making him only able see maybe five to ten meters in each direction. Anything past that was just gray.

With a sigh, Aizawa turned towards the doorway that led off of the roof, getting ready to head to the street to begin his patrol. As he reached for the handle, however, something caught his attention.

 _Ting!_

The high-pitched, short ringing noise of metal colliding with metal resounded through the area, and Aizawa froze midstep. A split second later, he was fully alert, searching for the source of the noise. His eyes flickered about the rooftop until his eye caught it, a coin rolling on its side on the roof. It rolled in circles, slowly spiraling to a stop.

Cautiously, Aizawa walked over and picked it up, rolling it over in his hand.

"What…" the coin didn't look anything like he'd ever seen. It definitely wasn't Japanese, the etchings on it depicted what looked like a castle with tall, spiked towers. The characters written on it were symbols like nothing Aizawa had seen before, like hieroglyphics composed of just circles, moon shapes, and...nails?

Looking up from his hand, Aizawa scanned the area, trying to see through the swirling mist. He looked over the rooftops whilst walking up to the railing near where the coin had landed. Running his hand along the ledge, he felt for impurities in the metal, and eventually, his finger ran across a small dent in the bar, presumably from where the coin had struck it.

 _Wherever this came from, it hit with enough force to dent the railing. Something hitting a human with that amount of force would be more than enough to penetrate skin,_ Aizawa thought, keeping his eyes trained on his surroundings.

Then, he saw it, a shadow in the corner of his right eye, just barely noticeable. A normal person probably would've missed it. Aizawa was no normal person, though. He was a trained, professional underground hero with years of experience with surveying and using observations skills to find those who didn't want to be seen. The moment he noticed the movement, he whipped around.

A silhouette danced across the rooftop across from him, a black figure against the grey backdrop.

"Stop!" Aizawa blurted out, breaking into a sprint. He didn't have time to go down to the ground level, he'd lose the person if he did that. His only option was to stay on the rooftops.

At a full sprint, he leapt up onto the railing, feet only touching for a split second before he launched himself across the alleyway. Luckily, he made the jump, landing with a roll back onto his feet.

Head snapping up, he saw that the figure was still on the roof, running for the ledge opposite from Aizawa himself, who didn't waste any time getting back to a sprint. The other figure neared the edge of the rooftop, not even slowing down, a telltale sign that they were planning on jumping from the roof and across the alley. A moment before they hit the ledge, however, they took a sharp turn to the left. Aizawa pivoted accordingly, not losing pace.

 _Where is he going?_ Aizawa thought, _that side of the roof…that's the street, isn't it? How does he plan on getting down?_

Just a couple of meters before the other person reached the ledge, Aizawa saw them reach towards their side, pulling something from what seemed to be the inner pocket of their clothing.

An ameteur would've spent time to wonder what they'd pulled out, or what they might use it for. Aizawa, however, had years of professional hero experience.

 _Running for the street, where normal people could neither get down nor across the gap, pulling something from his pocket,_ Aizawa knew better than to make guesses, _It's a Quirk._

Aizawa activated his Erasure. He felt a tingle go down his spine, just like every other time he activated his Quirk, and the hair around his head stood up slightly, seemingly defying gravity.

The figure got to the end of the roof, flicking something to the floor a moment before leaping from the roof. Part of Aizawa's heart sunk. The person's plan had obviously revolved around their quirk to either help them jump the distance between buildings or help them safely make it down. Without that, they'd be jumping off a roof like normal, average person. The fall probably wouldn't kill them, but they weren't going to come out without some sort of lasting damage.

Then, to Aizawa's surprise, the person didn't fall at all. Their body instead launched into the air, the light of the street highlighting an odd-looking tasseled cloak, before veering in the air, changing direction to head straight down the street.

"Shit!" Aizawa unwrapped the bands from around his neck, looking down from the roof. With a huff, he jumped from the ledge, simultaneously throwing out his bands towards a nearby streetlamp. The thick grey strips wrapped around the top of the streetlamp, slowing Aizawa's fall. The second he set foot on the ground, he broke into a sprint in the direction the figure had gone.

 _Why didn't my Erasure work?_ Aizawa thought to himself as he sprinted, _a mutant type quirk, maybe? Those are usually pretty obvious, but this could be a more subtle one._

Either way, there was one thing that was certain. The jump he'd just seen the person do, the way they were seemingly able to fly in a sense, it matched the reports they had of the vigilante's attack on the Trigger deal. This was their guy.

Steeling himself, Aizawa continued his sprint.

* * *

Izuku felt _good_. He knew he missed jumping in the mists, but he wasn't expecting to feel _this_ relieved. He ran across the rooftops, hopping between buildings as he made his way to Dagobah beach. Each time he flicked down a coin and launched into the air, he relished in the crisp coolness of the air as it blew by his face. At some point, he'd taken off his shoes, leaving them on the roof of a building near to home, allowing himself to feel the cool pavement against his feet.

There was something incredible about being out in the mists, the slightly cool and damp fog surrounding him, with not a single human soul to watch him. Ever since he'd left his room, he hadn't seen so much as a hint of another person, which was the way he liked it. Just him, his metals in his stomach, and the swirling of the mist to comfort him.

"Haha!" he let out a yell of joy as he used a coin jump to cross a street, landing a little bit harder than he meant to on the opposite rooftop. His leg buckled under him as he landed, causing him to trip and fall onto his face.

"Ouch…" he muttered, his knee stinging. Looking down, he saw that he'd skinned it pretty bad, and it would probably hurt a lot worse if not for the fact that he was burning pewter, which helped mitigate the pain.

 _Guess I'm still a bit rusty_ , he thought, pushing himself on to his feet. He bent his knee a few times, testing out the maneuverability and range of motion. It stung a bit, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. _Maybe I'll just go a bit slower from here._

Satisfied, Izuku reached inside his cloak, pulling out a coin.

 _Ting!_

Izuku froze. The sound was quiet, even to his enhanced ears. Spinning to his right, Izuku flared tin and searched for the source of the noise. Across the roof from him, he saw it: a blue line connecting him to a coin that was rolling on its side, moving in a spiral as if it had been thrown. Izuku waited for the coin to stop moving before he walked over and picked it up.

It was made out of some black metal, engraved with odd looking circular characters.

"I've never seen these symbols before," Izuku muttered, "what does that mean?"

He didn't have time to ponder it any longer, because he was torn from his thoughts by a soft sound from behind him. Turning around in an instant, Izuku saw something he was _not_ expecting to see.

A person standing on the opposite side of the roof. Their back was turned towards Izuku, but they were looking over their shoulder, a hood covering most of their face. As Izuku's eyes travelled down, however, he noticed just what they were wearing. It was a tasseled cloak, black fading to grey, seemingly melting into the mists.

The same cloak that he himself was wearing.

Izuku tightened his lips. _What is going on?_

A moment later, the person moved, stepping up to the edge of the rooftop.

"Wait!" Izuku blurted out, taking a step forward, "Who are you?"

The person didn't answer. Instead, they turned towards the ledge, looking as if they were about to jump off.

Suddenly overcome with an overwhelming urge to get answers, Izuku flared iron. The blue lines surrounding him brightened, and Izuku searched for the line that would connect him to any metal the other person had on them. If he could pull on him, stop them from running away, and he might be able to get some answers out of them.

Izuku flared iron, and the blue lines solidified he noticed something odd. There wasn't a single blue line stretching out to the person. Then, he realized it. _They don't have any metal on them._

The person jumped off the roof a moment later. Izuku ran to the edge, instantly concerned. People didn't just jump off of roofs. Just as he got to the edge, he watched as the person shot into the air, sailing towards the other ledge. The second they landed on the building opposite, they broke into a sprint, running across the roof.

 _Shit!_ Izuku thought, dropping the odd coin he'd picked up a few moments earlier. He pushed off of it, launching himself across the gap as well. As soon as he landed, he started running, taking off after the other person. On enhanced legs, crossing the rooftop only took a few seconds. He watched the other person jump across another gap between roofs with only a leap, and a few seconds later, Izuku followed suit, allowing his pewter enhanced legs to carry him across the gap without needing a coin to push himself.

Izuku continued to chase the other person, jumping across rooftop after rooftop. Every time he thought he was gaining ground on them, they sped up, and every time he felt like he felt like he was falling behind, they slowed down. It was like they were keeping him at a certain distance _on purpose_.

 _Actually, how are they still ahead?_ he thought. Pewter enhanced his speed, so he should be faster. Granted, the boost to his speed wasn't much, maybe the difference between a normal person and a trained athlete, but it was still something to consider. Anyone without some sort of speed-enhancing quirk would fall behind.

Eventually, they neared the edge of the block, where the gap between roofs was instead a street, a distance that would be impossible to jump for a normal person. Izuku expected the person to slow down, or to turn and head alongside the street.

They didn't slow down. Instead, they seemed to _speed up_. They got to the edge of the roof and Izuku saw something fall to the ground under their feet. A moment later, they were flying through the air as if carried by an invisible force. They landed gracefully on the opposite rooftop, running once again.

 _They just jumped that entire gap…_ Izuku realized with a start. This person, whoever they were, either had some sort of strength enhancing quirk that allowed them to outpace Izuku _and_ jump across street-wide gaps, or…

 _No, that's impossible._

It had to be a strength enhancing quirk. That was the only explanation.

Dropping a coin at his feet, Izuku pushed off with steel, carrying himself across the gap as well.

* * *

"Damn it…" Aizawa let out between gasps of breath. He'd been sprinting after the vigilante for a solid ten minutes now, and as physically fit as he was, he still couldn't run at full speed for that long. Besides, he was pretty sure he'd lost the guy, or rather, the guy had lost _him_.

Aizawa reached for his pocket for his phone. Even though he hadn't been able to catch him, Aizawa still needed to give an update to the rest of the heroes at the very least. This could help them track down the general area that the vigilante was operating, and it gave them a good overview of what the person's quirk did, and therefore what kind of hero they'd need to catch him.

 _Really good maneuverability, mutant type quirk, unsure of appearance outside of black and grey tasseled cloak,_ he ran through the details in his head as he pulled out his phone. He stuck his hand in his pocket, only to be met with a sharp prick of his finger.

 _Huh?_ Aizawa yanked his hand out, seeing a slight cut on his hand. Carefully, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, only to see that it was completely shattered.

 _I must have broken it on the roof,_ he thought, _well, that makes things more annoying._

He had a spare at his apartment, he was just a bit far from that now, and would have to backtrack without any way to call for backup in case the vigilante caught up with him again. With a groan, AIzawa looked around one more time, just to be sure the vigilante wasn't hiding around anywhere and took off at a jog back towards his apartment.

* * *

Pewter was the only reason Izuku was still going. Without it boosting his stamina, he'd have been down and out a while ago. They'd only been running for a few minutes, ten at the most, but he'd been at a full sprint the entire time. They'd probably run a few miles across rooftops. Izuku's feet were starting to hurt, the concrete scraping against his bare skin.

Even with pewter's help, his lungs were burning, and his legs were starting to get sore. Still, he kept up the pace, determined to chase down the person with the cloak identical to his.

With every jump, Izuku became more and more convinced that the way the other person moved was familiar, in a way. The way that they jumped and changed direction reminded him much of, well, himself. That in addition to the cloak...something was off.

Izuku jumped across the gap between buildings for what felt like the hundredth time, his eyes trained on the person he was chasing. As Izuku watched them, something about their posture changed, and Izuku's intuition screamed at him that something was off this time. Sure enough, as Izuku landed, the other person reached into their cloak, pulling a small object out into their hand. The hand left the cloak, and a blue line came to life, sprouting from Izuku's chest and reaching out towards the other person.

On instinct, Izuku ducked, nearly falling to the ground, barely keeping his balance, and not a moment later, he heard the sound of something whizz through the space that his head had been a moment ago. A quick glance back showed that whatever the man had pulled out of his cloak was now embedded in the brick wall of the building behind him.

 _A bullet?_ Izuku thought, but quickly dismissed the idea, no _, there was no gunshot._

Turning his head back towards the other person, Izuku kept his center of mass low to the ground, in case he needed to dive out of the way of another shot, Whatever the flying object that had been shot at him was, it had penetrated brick, which meant it could cause some serious damage if it he was hit.

Izuku kept his eye on the other person as he continued the chase, waiting for another movement. It wasn't long before they reached into their cloak once more, and a split second later, another a blue line sprung to life.

This time, however, Izuku was ready. The second he saw the line, he dove to the side, pushing as hard as he could on the metal. This time, instead of firing in a straight line, the object went flying off into the air, redirected by Izuku's push.

"Yes!" Izuku let out a little holler, before focusing back on running. The more he ran, the better of an idea that he got of how the stranger looked. The cloak was definitely identical to the one Izuku himself was wearing and seemed to conceal any metal held inside of it. In addition, Izuku was pretty sure that the person was a man. He hadn't seen their face, but the stature and build were that of a man's.

The man let loose another few shots every couple of rooftops, but Izuku deflected them every single time. Yet, the man continued to run, keeping the distance between himself and Izuku consistent, not too far, not too close. Izuku jumped onto yet another rooftop, this time having to vault over a metal railing.

As he landed, another blue line appeared, somehow brighter than the others, and Izuku prepared to push the shot away, just like all the others. A split second after the metal left the man's hand, however, the line _split_ into many, smaller lines.

 _It's not just one, it's an entire handful of shots!_ Izuku realized, panicking and wildly pushing on every single line. The burst scattered, all pushed in wildly different directions away from Izuku. All except one, a line that perfectly split itself between Izuku and the man.

A force ran through Izuku as he was blown back and off of his feet. He slammed into the railing he'd just jumped over, feeling it bend slightly from the force. He felt his breath fly from his lungs as pain exploded across his back, his head slamming against the bar, causing his ears to ring. He knew for a fact that a person without pewter would have passed out on the spot, either from the blow to the head or the pain, or both.

Izuku let out a silent yell of pain, his vocal cords unable to work without any air. His vision flashed with black spots and he felt himself start to get light headed as immense pressure pushed against his chest, forcing him harder and harder into the railing.

Izuku watched in a combination of horror and amazement as the metal object, which he now recognized as another of those odd-looking coins, sat, suspended in the air, slowly being crushed into a ball. Izuku's eyes shot to the man, seeing him walk towards Izuku slowly, as if his steps were labored.

Izuku's breath came in short, gasping bursts, the pressure on his chest making his lungs feel as if they were about to explode. The man got closer and closer, and Izuku felt fear start to rise inside of him. He tried to push himself up to get away, but a shock of pain ran through his entire back as the railing dug into his spine.

"Gahh!" Izuku let out a groan, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. He tried to push himself up to his feet, but he couldn't even get his upper body up and off of the railing.

 _He's pushing on the coin as well,_ Izuku finally realized, _He's using steel._

He had so many questions. Who was this person, why could he use the same powers as him, what was with their cloak, why was he fighting Izuku? Yet, every time he tried to open his mouth to talk, his lungs burned, and he had to focus on breathing again.

"You shouldn't get into a pushing match if you aren't sure you're heavier than the opponent," the man said simply, stopping a few feet away from Izuku. His voice was charismatic in a way, the kind of voice that would make you more inclined to like them right away.

 _It would work, if you weren't trying to kill me right now._

The man's voice sounded familiar, as well. Izuku tried to raise his head to see the man's face, but his neck was _so heavy_.

"When you get into a pushing match with another mistborn," the man continued, taking another few steps towards where the coin was suspended in midair, reduced to a tiny ball of metal, "you use your body weight to push. The coin acts as a medium for the force to travel through, and then the heavier person wins. I'm heavier, so all I've got is your body force pushing against me, which just makes it a little harder to walk, but you've got both my body force, and _your own_ body force weighing you down, pinning you here."

Izuku was trying to process what the man was saying, using terms Izuku had never heard of before like 'pushing match' and 'mistborn', but in the end, he couldn't focus on anything but the searing pain running through his body as he was crushed by his opponent's steelpush. Izuku understood the catch 22 he was in. If he stopped pushing, the coin would be shot at him by the other man's push, and vice versa for him. Neither party could let up on the coin, else they die to a coin shot through their body, and since Izuku was lighter, as the man said, he lost and was being forced into the railing.

The metal bar bent again under the force, leaning Izuku even further back and hanging him over the alleyway below. Pain shot through his entire body, and he let out a scream as it dug into his spine. He could feel himself wavering at the edge of consciousness, his body wanting to pass out from how much everything hurt, and pewter not allowing it to. Another creak from the railing.

"Looks like my time is up for today," the man said. Izuku couldn't even see him anymore, he just kept pushing on the coin to prevent it from being shot into his own body. "Remember, kid. _Survive._ "

With that, the railing broke, snapping away from its concrete base, dropping Izuku into freefall. He felt the pressure release as the change in angle caused the coin to shoot straight into the air, no longer relaying the forces. Izuku's vision swam with black spots as he fell towards the alleyway below, barely keeping consciousness.

 _Survive._

Izuku reached to his belt, grabbing for his coin pouch. He fumbled for a split second, costing himself precious time, so he just opted to flare pewter, breaking the clasp that held the belt on. As the pouches attached to his belt fell from his body, he pushed against them, accelerating their fall. They landed a split second before Izuku himself did, allowing the force from his push being redirected to him, slowing his fall just enough that the crash into the ground didn't break his body.

He still landed hard, the broken railing clanging to the ground next to him.

* * *

Aizawa heard a crash. More specifically, he heard the sound of snapping metal and then a crash a few seconds later. Stopping in his tracks, he turned towards the direction of the sound, his hands flying to his capture bands.

 _The sound came from the alleyway just behind me_ he thought, spinning around on the spot. He ran over, ready for any sort of danger. He was still on edge from his run in with the culprit a few minutes ago, and so he was on guard when he peered into the dark alley, the mist shrouding his vision.

"Gah-" a short groan came from the alley, alongside the sound of shuffling, like someone trying to get up.

"Someone down there? You alright?" he said, his voice slightly coarse from running for the last fifteen minutes. He kept his arm on the capture bands, just in case it was some drug head or something along those lines.

"I'm-" the voice was a kid's, pubescent like a middle schooler's, "I'm okay…"

The shuffling noise got louder and Aizawa saw a pale hand grab on to the corner of the dumpster, looking as if they were trying to pull themselves to their feet. Aizawa took a step forwards but stopped when a face appeared from the other side of the dumpster.

Dishevelled green hair sitting on top of a pale face with dark, heavy bags under his eyes. Izuku recognized him as the kid that had been standing on the roof earlier that day. He winced as he pulled himself up, using the dumpster as a support. Aizawa went to take a step forward to help, since he was obviously injured.

The kid walked around the dumpster, and the moment Aizawa got sight of his entire body, he froze, his heart jumping to his throat. On the kid's shoulders, there was a dark grey cloak that split into tassels past the shoulders, fading into grey like it blended into the mist as it got to the bottom. It was a bit dirtier up close, but it was definitely the same cloak he'd seen on the vigilante, minutes earlier.

This was him.

Aizawa took a jump back, immediately activating his quirk. The boy, who had been leaning on the dumpster for support, wavered, half falling. Aizawa tightened his grip on the vigilante, ready for a fight. His erasure hadn't worked earlier, but it was a safety precaution to use it anyways, just in case.

The kid tried to take a step forward, but stumbled, falling to one knee.

 _He did look injured,_ Aizawa thought, not letting his guard down.

The kid looked up, green eyes meeting Aizawa's own. Then, they rolled back in his head, and the kid fell limply to the floor, his body buckling under his weight. He didn't exactly hit the ground softly.

Aizawa paused, taking in the new information. Stopping his erasure, he slowly approached the boy, who was face down on the pavement. Carefully, Aizawa checked for a pulse.

He was breathing, and there was a pulse, but it was obvious that he was out cold.

Aizawa stood, looking at the unconscious boy, who also happened to be the vigilante they'd been looking for, and realized that, since his phone was broken, he had no way to contact anyone else for help.

"Shit."

* * *

When Izuku woke, it was slow, his eyelids heavy. Blinking a few times, he found himself staring at a white ceiling, bright white lights shining straight into his eyes. Yet, it didn't hurt to look at the bright light like it normally would. Everything around him felt...numb in a way.

He tried to speak, but his voice was coarse, his throat raw. "Hello?"

He tried to turn his head to look around, but his neck was so stiff that it hurt the moment he tried. He let out a little gasp of pain as he grasped around him, his hands finding metal railings. With a heave, he pushed himself into a sitting position, his back protesting the entire time. Only then did he realize that he was in a hospital bed.

He reached up to scratch his head, trying to recall what had happened in the moments before he passed out. One moment, he'd been focusing on his breathing, trying to mitigate his pain throughout his body by flaring pewter. The next moment, there was a man at the end of the alley, and the next thing he knew, his metals were completely stripped from him and he passed out almost instantly as a wave of exhaustion hit him like a truck.

 _Metals,_ Izuku thought with a panic, checking his reserves. For the first time in months, he found nothing. Not a single metal had a reserve. He could feel the spots where there _should_ have been metals, but it was simply _vacant_.

 _I suppose that should be expected,_ he thought, noting the pain in his back, neck, and chest, as well as the fact that he was currently sitting in a hospital bed.

Reaching over onto the side of his bed, he fumbled for the button that would notify the doctors that he was awake. He leaned back in his bed, using the control on the side to raise the back a little bit, just enough that he could see the whole room without needing to crane his neck. A few moments later the door creaked open, a man in a white coat stepping in.

"Midoriya!" the man said it loudly, walking straight past Izuku to the blinds, pulling them open, letting the afternoon sunlight shine in to the room. Izuku flinched at the sudden brightness for a moment, but his eyes quickly adjusted. "How are we feeling?"

"Uhh...not too great," he croaked truthfully. The doctor nodded, walking over and getting a glass of water from the cooler on the other side of the room. He walked over, handing it to Izuku, who took it and drank. Drinking water never felt so good.

"Alright, Midoriya, I'm going to have to do some tests on you really quickly before we can get to explaining what all is going on. Is that okay with you?"

Izuku nodded silently, trying to prop himself up a little bit, only to be met with minimal success. The doctor ran through a general checkup, testing his eyes, ears, reaction speeds, and breathing, as well as prodding at different parts of his body. Eventually, the man stepped away, scribbling on his clipboard.

Izuku sat in awkward silence for a moment, trying to comprehend all that was happening. He was _pretty sure_ that he was in the hospital due to his injuries. Even with pewter's help, he'd barely been holding on after the encounter with the other man, the man that wore a cloak identical to his own and could use metals as well.

 _Cloak,_ Izuku thought, panicking slightly.

"Do you know where my clothing is?" he asked, looking around the room for any sign of it.

"Confiscated," the doctor said simply, not looking up from his clipboard.

"Confin -" he cut himself off, "what do you mean?"

"I mean that it was confiscated. It's not up to me when or how you get it back."

Izuku's heart sunk in his chest. That cloak was the only memento he had from his past, what did this doctor even _mean?_ He could feel his breathing accelerate slightly. He was already uneasy, the situation he was in wasn't exactly informative and he didn't have the familiar wells of metals in his stomach to help keep him at ease, so the prospect of losing something so important to him did _not_ sit well.

Izuku was torn from his thoughts by the sound of a knock on the door.

"Speaking of…" the doctor muttered, stepping out of the way as a man wearing all black with long, dishevelled black hair and dark bags under his eyes stepped inside.

"It's the roof hobo guy!" Izuku blurted it out before he could stop himself. A weight dropped in his stomach as the room froze on the spot, both of the other people stopping to stare at Izuku.

It was the new guy that broke the silence with a little chuckle. "I'd prefer if you call me Eraserhead."

 _Eraser-_ If it were possible, Izuku's heart would have fallen out of his chest. _I just called the professional hero, Eraserhead, 'roof hobo guy'._ That wasn't the bulk of his problem, though. If there was a professional hero present, considering his act of accidental vigilantism...he could be in for a bad time.

Izuku could only sit, shocked shitless, as Eraserhead took a seat in one of the chairs that lined the edge of the room. Izuku was only brought back to reality when the doctor clapped his hands together, grabbing a clipboard from the counter.

"Midoriya, I can safely say that you are the single most interesting case I've ever come across as a quirk doctor. The set of circumstances that led up to this point have completely blown us out of the water, and I need to ask you a few questions about your quirk so that we can get everything set away. Is that okay?"

Izuku gulped but nodded.

"Alright then," the doctor turned his eyes to the clipboard. "You were diagnosed as quirkless when you were a child, correct?"

"Yes," Izuku's voice came out high pitched like a bird's chirp. A nervous glance to the side showed Eraserhead had his attention focused on the doctor, which took a little bit of the pressure off of his shoulders.

The doctor ticked something on the clipboard at Izuku's response. "Okay, the next thing I'm going to need you to do is give me the rundown of when this quirk started to manifest. Start from the beginning, please."

Izuku took a deep breath, steadying himself. He knew that treading in deep water, there would be no point in lying to the doctor, it would only mean more trouble. So, he spilled his guts, starting all the way back when he'd started to notice his "Luck" in grade school. He talked about how he came to know there was more to his quirk, and that he'd only started experimenting with it over the last few months. He talked about what metals did what, and how he could control the output. He, however, did not mention the person in the other cloak. If there was one thing that he needed to figure out himself, it would be that. Someone with an identical power set to his own and an identical cloak to his own knew _something_ , and that was information Izuku was going to have to get on his own. Besides, it wasn't important for the doctor to know.

As Izuku spoke, the doctor continued to write on the clipboard. When he finally finished speaking, after what felt like an eternity, he reached for the bedside table, taking another drink from his glass of water. Eventually, the doctor clicked his pen, and Izuku turned his attention back to the man.

"While you were asleep, we ran a few tests, mainly blood tests and genome tests to try to figure out exactly what was happening. Luckily, you were out for long enough that we were able to come up with a relatively plausible explanation," the doctor explained, "Would you care to hear it?"

 _Out for long enough…?_ Izuku frowned, "Wait, how long was I asleep for?"

"This would be your eighth day with us."

If he'd had anything in his hands, he'd have dropped it then and there. Eight days? He'd been asleep for _Eight days?_

Izuku's mind flew to panic mode. _Miss Sakura is going to tear me a new one...they must be so worried. Yaoyorozu, too! I hope she didn't wait for me to walk to school and ended up being late…_

"Midoriya, are you alright?" the doctor's voice brought Izuku back to reality.

"I -" he paused, "I'm just a bit shocked, is all. I didn't know my injuries were that severe."

"They weren't," the doctor confirmed, "at least not bad enough to keep you asleep for that long. Your body just needed rest, which, from the sound of it, you haven't been giving it. If I were to venture to guess, I'd say that this "burning" thing you did with pewter was all that was keeping you going. As soon as Eraserhead stopped your quirk from working, your body didn't have the fuel to keep it going, so it just shutdown."

 _Yaoyorzu was right, maybe I should've been sleeping._

"I'm sorry, you can continue."

The doctor cleared his throat before starting again. "When we ran your genome, we came up with the same thing that the quirk doctor did when you were a kid. There is no quirk factor present, which, based on all current medical knowledge, means that you should not have a quirk. This, obviously, is wrong. You obvious have quirk-like abilities, so there must be something there. Closer inspection showed that, in the place where your quirk factor _should_ be, there's an entirely different type of genetic structure. It's almost impossible to decipher, but it's more than a simple mutation, it's a change to the entire genome."

Izuku was _kind of_ following what he was saying.

"Before I explain the rest, let me take a step back for a moment. The way that the quirk factor works is like any other DNA strand: it creates a strand of amino acids that are used to form enzymes. In the case of quirks, those enzymes serve a very specific purpose within someone's body, which gives birth to their Quirks. Historically, we've seen that people who are born with compound quirks already put stress on that part of their body, as the enzymes cannot be produced fast enough. Cases of people with three or more quirks are incredibly rare, because the stress that is put on the quirk factor is so great that it causes an entire host of other medical issues within the patient."

The doctor was beginning to speak faster and faster as he went through his explanation, and Izuku could feel his head start to spin. "The best way to explain what is going on with you is that, when you were born, part of your body was predisposed to the fact that you could be developing a compound quirk, and rather than suffering the health problems that came with three, or in this case, five or more quirks, your body preemptively adapted to this fact and modified your genome accordingly. It is truly interesting, but what I think we are witnessing here is a mutation of your quirk factor into a section of the genome that was able to handle your compound quirk."

With that, the doctor set down his clipboard, opening his arms as if he were waiting for applause.

"I think I got...most of that." Izuku said.

"Good enough! We'll take care of the rest of the documentation on our side," the doctor nodded to Eraserhead, "I'll be taking my leave, now. I'll contact friends and family and tell them that you're awake."

* * *

As soon as the doctor left, the room fell into an awkward silence. Aizawa hadn't moved from his seat in the corner, and he kept his eyes trained on the ground. He heard the kid, Midoriya Izuku was his name, mumbling to himself under his breath, something indecipherable.

Eventually, Aizawa looked up from the floor, his long black hair falling to the sides. He looked at Midoriya, studying him well, his gaze drilling into the boy, searching for any and every single flaw.

He didn't see a vigilante. He didn't see a criminal. All he saw was a kid who made a series of extremely stupid decisions that landed him in a hospital bed with a series of injuries. Aizawa was harsh, he liked for people to learn from their mistakes, and hated when they didn't, but he also wasn't cruel.

So, he just sighed, slumping his shoulders forward. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused me over the last few weeks?" He made sure his voice was stern and authoritative, but also a bit nonchalant at the same time.

"Huh?" Midoriya sputtered, "Uhh…"

Aizawa cut him off. "You had the entirety of southern Tokyo's underground hero ring on the lookout for you, but it turns out the vigilante that evaded us for a week was just a middle school kid who happened to stop the one of the most dangerous drug deals possible." He let out a sigh, running his hands through his hair.

 _Scare him a little, not too much_ , Aizawa thought. If Midoriya's face was anything to go by, it was working.

"Tell me what happened on the night you knocked out a cleanser and saved Shinsou Hitoshi. Your side of the story."

Midoriya took a moment to gather his thoughts, but he nodded, and began speaking. "I was out in the mists, practicing with my...Quirk like I had been for the last couple of months. I'd just gotten used to using steel to jump between buildings, so I'd gotten a bit far from home, and was about to head back when I heard talking inside the building that I was on the roof of. I went to a window to check it out and..." Midoriya, scratched the back of his head, "I don't really remember the rest. As soon as I saw that guy pull out a gun, my body just moved on its own. Next thing I knew, he was on the ground and I was inside the warehouse."

Aizawa let out a sigh. It was honestly exactly what he was expecting. He was just a middle school kid who got a little in over his head.

"I didn't mean to break the law, I really didn't!" Midoriya continued, "I just couldn't stop myself. There was someone that was in trouble and I was able to help, so I did. I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."

"Would you do it again, given the chance?" Aizawa asked.

Midoriya didn't miss a beat. "Yes."

"Then stop apologizing."

Midoriya's face flushed, but he shut his mouth.

Aizawa waited a second before he continued. "Your little act of heroism could have gotten you hurt, or even worsened the scenario. It's best to leave these things to the professionals. Those laws preventing Quirk use exist for a _reason_."

Midoriya silently nodded again, his lips drawn to a thin line. Aizawa stood up, letting his shoulders slump forward a bit. "That being said, sometimes heroes aren't there on time. You did a good thing, but laws are laws, and they need to be universally upheld."

Then, Aizawa stepped up next to the bed. "Next question: why did you ever think that going out at night and practicing your quirk _illegally_ would ever be a smart idea?"

At this, Midoriya's face softened. He took a moment to respond, like he was searching for the right words to say what he wanted to say. Eventually, he took another drink of water from the glass and cleared his throat.

"Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to help people, but I never could because I didn't have a Quirk. When I learned that I actually _do_ have a quirk, I was already ten years behind everyone else. If I want to get into a hero school, I'm going to have to get ten years worth of experience with my quirk in less than ten months."

Aizawa gazed at Midoriya for a moment, taking in the outburst. The boy had started slow, but as he progressed through the sentences, he'd started to ramble. Aizawa also noticed how Midoriya refused to look him in the eye, instead opting to stare down at the hospital sheets. Looking at the boy, Aizawa almost saw another person entirely, someone he knew all too well, a boy with shaggy black hair who couldn't use his quirk without using others as testing dummies, but still wanted to be a hero.

"We're not letting you off easy," Aizawa said, after a few moments of silence between them. "It doesn't matter what your motivations are, the law doesn't care. It's illegal if you don't have a license to use your Quirk freely."

Midoriya's face sunk, but he nodded. "I understand."

"However," Aizawa mumbled, dropping the tough guy facade and falling back into his normal, lackadaisical self, "All of the times that we have on record of you using your Quirk, you were still technically classified as Quirkless, so Quirk use laws technically didn't apply to you. We're getting that fixed, but we technically can't persecute you for illegal quirk use if you didn't legally have a quirk at the time."

Midoriya's head shot up from where he'd been staring, finally meeting Aizawa's eyes.

Aizawa met them for a moment, and he got the same feeling of familiarity. Then, he stepped away from the bedside and headed for the door. "We're still not letting you off scotch-free. Knowingly not having an up-to-date quirk registry is still a crime, but it's no vigilantism charge. There will be a fine for that, you will need to update your Quirk with the registry, and there is also an invoice you'll need to pay for the price of the window you broke at the warehouse, or you can do twenty hours of community service. Next time, do us all a favor and _don't_ be so stupid."

Aizawa reached for the door handle, sliding it open and making to leave. Right as he put put one foot through the doorway, however, he was stopped.

"Eraserhead!" Midoriya shouted, "where is somewhere I can practice my quirk legally?"  
Aizawa stopped, turning back around.

"I still want to be a hero, so I want to learn to use my Qu -" he paused, tripping on the word, "my Quirk. I want to get a lot of experience with it so I can get into Yuuei, so is there anywhere I can practice using it?"

Aizawa studied Midoriya. The entire rest of time he'd been there, Midoriya had a look of emptiness mixed with solemness plastered on his face. Now, however, he was smiling, a hopeful look in his eyes. The moment he talked about becoming a hero and needing a place to practice his Quirk, his entire mood had changed.

Aizawa didn't quite know what came over him. Part of it was the memory of how well he'd outmaneuvered Aizawa himself on that rooftop, or his curiosity at how he'd been immune to erasure the first time they'd encountered each other. Maybe part of it was Nezu's constant badgering about finding someone for an apprenticeship, and maybe, just maybe, it was that memory of the socially awkward kid with no resources who had to fight his way tooth and nail up the ladder to get his shot at becoming a hero. It was probably all of that.

Before he could second guess himself, Aizawa pulled a notepad out of his pocket, grabbing a pen from where the doctor had left it on the counter when he'd left. He scribbled the address to one of Yuuei's off-campus training gyms, and ripped out the paper, handing it to Midoriya.

"Three to five pm, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Don't be late."

Aizawa didn't wait to see if Midoriya asked questions, and frankly, he didn't want to stick around any longer. He was tired and his bed was calling to him, so he left. As he exited the room, he saw a group of people collected around the door, waiting to be able to go in. It was mostly small children, which made sense considering Midoriya was a foster child, but it was the person at the front of the group that made him raise an internal eyebrow. It was a girl wearing a middle school uniform, her hair done up in a ponytail, twirling one of her stray strands of hair around her finger anxiously. She gave Aizawa an expectant gaze as he opened the door all the way.

"He's all yours." Aizawa mumbled, turning to leave. He couldn't help but be a little curious as to what she was doing in the middle of a school day, waiting to visit the boy.

 _A girlfriend, maybe?_ Aizawa wondered for a moment, but quickly decided he didn't care whatsoever.

As he was walking down the hallway, he heard the very same girl's voice yell. "Midoriya Izuku, if you weren't concussed, I would beat you over the head with a wooden spoon for being so stupid and not listening to me!"

"Yaoyorozu-AHH!" Midoriya's yelp was the last thing Aizawa heard before their voices faded into the background.


	10. Chapter 10: Transitioning

**Chapter 10: Transitioning**

* * *

 _First off, this took a wee bit longer than 3 weeks (sitting at just under 6 now) but that's mostly due to the fact that I've been writing a lot in the background. I've got 3 fics I'm writing simultaneously (2 for Kimetsu no Yaiba, plus this one), with another in the planning stages (a complete rehaul of my BNHA x Pokemon fic, now that Sword and Shield is almost out and I've got some plans) That being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

The hospital decided to keep Izuku for another three days after he woke up. He was still concussed, and the hospital wanted to run a few tests (that ended up being essentially a non-ending stream of tests) on him to ensure that everything was working correctly, as well as making sure all of the new documentation regarding his Quirk was setup properly. They brought samples of metals that they already knew worked for him to use and ensured that there was no other health effects from him burning it, which had led to an entire day of burning a metal and then sitting around for 2 hours as the doctors ran examinations, before moving on to another metal.

Something interesting that he learned during that time was that when it came to metals that were alloys, such as pewter, brass, or steel, minute changes in the composition of the metal could have drastic changes in the efficiency. Using pewter as an example, blends of pewter that were too rich in tin caused the metal to burn quicker, running through his supplies faster. If there was too much copper in it, on the other hand, the metal burned slowly, but the potency of the effects were dulled, and he even started to develop a headache with one of the samples. In the end, they came to find out that the best ratio for pewter was about 12% copper, and 88% tin.

When she came to visit the day that Izuku woke up, Miss Sakura had given him an earful on how irresponsible he'd been, how he should have told her, the whole nine yards. It wasn't often that Miss Sakura had outbursts like that, and Izuku knew that he'd messed up, so he accepted the scolding with open arms. The other children of the orphanage were just happy to see him, which warmed Izuku's heart.

Yaoyorozu, after her own initial scolding, had apologized to Miss Sakura and the doctors for keeping the secret. Izuku, in turn, apologized for burdening her with his problems, only to get scolded for apologizing.

There was a lot of apologizing.

Yaoyorozu visited Izuku after she was done with school every day, which was helpful to mitigate his boredom. She'd talked to his teacher on his behalf and gathered homework from the days he'd missed, which helped him not fall behind. When Izuku had asked why she was going so far to help him, she'd simply said, "It's not like I have anything better to do."

On the fourth day after Izuku woke up, he was released from the hospital. He still hurt all over, especially his back, but the doctors had done all of the testing they needed and his injuries had gone down enough that they sent him on his way with a little bit of pain medication and the instructions that he was allowed to use a little bit of pewter to keep his body running, although he was to shut it off before going to bed each night.

Despite his close call with a vigilantism charge, recreational Quirk use was still legal in most cases. Quirks were like tools, in a way, even if the government liked to act like they didn't exist sometimes. It's not illegal to use a knife to open a box, so it shouldn't be illegal to use a Quirk to do the same. The places where it got into more illegal territory was when Quirks were used against other people in a way that posed a threat to their safety, or for personal monetary gain.

After the non-stop insanity of the last few days, Izuku was glad to finally be back to a sense of normalcy. Sure, he couldn't go out at night into the mists anymore (a fact that he was still disappointed about, and wasn't going to push his luck), but it was nice to not have to feel like he was constantly sneaking around. Additionally, he probably wouldn't need to be secretive about burning metals anymore, since it was all out in the open now. At least, it was mostly out in the open.  
Izuku planned on keeping it a secret from his classmates, at least for the time being. Due to him being a minor, his private information regarding his hospitalization and Quirk developments were all kept under wraps. He'd been updated in the Quirk Registry, but nobody other than himself or legal authorities were allowed to access that information until he was legally an adult. He'd grown up being seen as quirkless, and suddenly turning that on its head would cause a commotion, which was the last thing Izuku wanted.

 _I'll just keep it a secret for the rest of middle school, and then start fresh in high school,_ he told himself.

All in all, Izuku was feeling good, despite his aching back and throbbing headache. It was going to have to take some getting used to actually going to sleep again, but that was probably better for his health anyways. As it stood, there were only two things for him to worry about: the community service hours that he was required to do, and the note that Eraserhead had given him with an address on it.

The directions echoed in Izuku's mind, _Three to five pm, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Don't be late._

Today was Sunday, which meant that tomorrow was Monday, the first day of the days that Eraserhead had given Izuku. The hero had given him the address and time when Izuku asked about where he could go to legally train his Quirk, and it didn't take a genius to make the connection; he'd been given the address to some sort of Quirk training gym.

Quirk gyms weren't open to the public, but usually only professional heroes and people that manifested...problematic Quirks, such as ones that needed a lot of training to reign in, had access to them. For example, he particularly remembered a kid from his elementary school that developed a quirk that caused completely random, uncontrollable, weaponized flatulence. Without some level of training to learn how to control it properly, he'd have had to live with the rest of his life with a rear end that could clear a room. The boy, of course, would later accept his Quirk as part of him and properly rename it 'Assplosion'.

His elementary school classmate aside, the point stands that Quirk gyms, and subsequently those who had access to them, were not something to take lightly. If Eraserhead had really invited him to one of said Quirk gyms, well, it wasn't exactly an offer he could readily deny.

Still, he felt a bit uneasy about the whole situation. He wasn't sure if he was quite ready to face Eraserhead, especially after his series of stupid mistakes that put him in this situation in the first place. Besides, illegal or not, he itched to simply go out at night into the mists and practice his Quirk in the freedom of the night, rather than within the confines of a building under strict supervision.

* * *

The walk to school the next day was...certainly something, to say the least. Miss Sakura, having confiscated his metals, sent him to school with only enough pewter to act as a painkiller if he burned it at a simmer for the entire day. He wasn't used to not having tin to enhance his senses, or a reserve of steel to keep an eye on metal sources around him.

Plus, everything ached. His legs, even through the pewter, felt stiff and his back and neck still hurt if he turned his head too much or bent over too quick. He knew without his (albeit minimal) pewter, it would be a lot worse, so he was determined to make it last.

He must have shown his uncomfort on his face, because Yaoyorozu cleared her throat. "You look...uncomfortable."

"Tell me about it," Izuku groaned, "It still feels weird. It's like my skin is slightly numb and everything I hear sounds muffled."

Yaoyorozu rolled her eyes. "You'll get over it. Welcome to seeing and hearing like the rest of us."

Izuku grumbled softly, slumping his shoulders. He and Yaoyorozu walked to school every day, which was normal, but what was _not_ normal was the fact that everyone that passed Izuku paused for a second to look at him. Most just paused a fraction of a moment before they left, but others lingered for long enough to make it awkward. It made sense, who _wouldn't_ look at the kid who missed school for 2 weeks because he was in the hospital for an undisclosed reason?

Nonetheless, the looks made Izuku want to shrink up and hide.

Izuku hated the spotlight, and sometimes he wished that he'd been born with a turtle-like Quirk so that he could simply retract his head into his body like, well, a turtle retracting its head into its shell.

"You know, I think your homeroom teacher actually mentioned something about you to your class when you were hospitalized. I heard a few people around school talking about it."

Izuku sunk a little further. "Great, more stares."

"You'll be fine," Momo patted him on his back. "Most of the rumors are a hundred times more mundane than the truth."

Just as silence fell between them, Izuku felt a nudge as he was shoved to the side roughly. He stumbled for a moment, and after regaining his balance, Izuku looked up to see Bakugo walking in a straight line away from Izuku, shoving his way through the crowd.

Izuku ought to have at least been irritated. His back was still sore, and Bakugo had practically shoulder checked him on his way through. Yet, with all the people constantly looking at Izuku, pausing to see the kid who was missing for two weeks, Bakugo didn't so much as give him a second glance, and that was refreshing.

Izuku looked up to see Yaoyorozu's eyes dart between him and Bakugo, like she was tottering between calling Bakugo out and leaving it alone. She flinched, taking a half-hearted step forwards before Izuku simply put his hand on her arm.

"It's not worth it," he said, "You'll just get into another pointless argument with him."

Yaoyorozu looked at him for a moment before pausing, letting out a sigh. "You shouldn't let him push you around like that, figuratively and literally." Izuku didn't respond, opting to simply continue his trek towards the school.

* * *

"It's like being on rations," Izuku complained, picking at his lunch. Miss Sakura had given him a little pouch full of pewter shavings inside his bento of all things. "It's like she thinks I just need to eat the metals like they're normal food."

Yaoyorozu stifled a giggle. "Well, you haven't really given her a solid definition of your Quirk yet, right? Besides, you said the doctors prescribed you to use pewter as a painkiller additive, so think of it like her putting medication with your lunch."

"I wish she'd given me more," Izuku grumbled, "tin would be awfully helpful to keep me focused in class."

"It's not like you need to listen to anything those teachers say anyway."

 _Yes, but it would be an excuse to have some tin on hand,_ Izuku bit back the comment, knowing it would only earn him more (albeit light) ridicule. They continued to make small talk, mostly about Izuku's bad metal consuming habits for the next few minutes.

Eventually, when Izuku stuck his hand in his pocket to retrieve his cell phone, his fingers brushed across a slip of paper. He pulled it out to find that it was the slip with the address that Eraserhead had given him.

Before he could force it back into his pocket, however, Yaoyorzu saw it and spoke up. "What's that?"  
Izuku paused, considering coming up with some lie, a believable excuse, but thought better of it. He sighed and told her about the latter half of his conversation with Eraserhead and how he'd given Izuku the address and instructions to show up at 3pm.

"3pm as in 3pm _today_?"

Izuku nodded. "I'm still unsure if I want to go. I mean - "

He was cut off. "What do you mean you're 'unsure if you want to go'? You're the hero nerd here, so tell me what this whole situation sounds like. Be honest with yourself."

Izuku paused. "What do you mean?"

An expression of momentary shock flashed across Yaoyorozu's face. "Oh come on. A professional hero offering to train a middle school student? That sounds like a middle school apprenticeship to me."

"A what?"

"Don't tell me the hero nerd doesn't know about middle school apprenticeships."

Izuku shook his head. "I've heard of high school students doing internships with hero agencies when they're in high school, but never middle schoolers. Can middle schoolers even legally fight villains?"

"Not that type of apprenticeship," Yaoyorozu explained, sticking her chopsticks into a piece of sushi, "Apprentices are different from interns. Apprentices are middle school students that heroes take a particular interest in and offer to train in their freetime, either with their Quirk or just in general."

Izuku was dumbfounded. Not only had he never heard of middle school students getting apprenticeships with heroes, but by the sound of it, that was exactly what was happening with Eraserhead. _No, that can't be right_.

"Maybe he's just sending me to one of those Quirk gyms," Izuku said, "I doubt he's trying to take me on as an apprentice."

Yaoyorozu shrugged. "The only way you can figure out is to go."

Izuku flinched a little bit. As intriguing as the idea was, part of him didn't want to go work with someone else to figure out his Quirk. He was an independent person and preferred to figure out his issues alone, especially considering how he'd done that so far for much of his Quirk. Still, one particular line stuck out to him.

 _Middle school students that heroes take a particular interest in_. his mind echoed, _does that mean Eraserhead saw promise in me?_

Izuku bit his bottom lip to ground himself. "How do you even know about all of this?"

"The old man offered to pay my way into one of them a few years back."

"Ahh...got it," Izuku didn't push any further. He'd learned over time that 'old man' meant her biological dad, and although she'd opened up to him about her family situation, Izuku knew that anything relating to Yayorozu's family was a bit of a soft spot better left alone.

"Point is," Yayorozu said after a few seconds of awkward silence. "You should go."

"I'd need to leave straight from here after school to get there in time. It's halfway across the prefecture."

"Then do that."

Izuku let out a sigh, a little bit defeated, "I'll go. I was probably going to go either way, I was just trying to talk myself out of it."

Yaoyorozu smiled, "I think you'll like it. Especially with how focused on becoming a hero you are."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

* * *

The second class was out for the day, Izuku made a rush for the door. Classes got out at 2pm and his transit app approximated 40 minutes of train hopping to get to the address he'd been given. Considering the fact that he needed to be there at 3pm, he hardly had time to wait around.

Izuku pushed through the crowds, getting out of the school before anyone else could, giving a little push of pewter to stave off the soreness in his legs as well as help him walk a little bit faster without tiring.

He stopped by home first, walking in the door and dropping off his bag before grabbing the pouches of metal that he'd had attached to his belt previously and leaving again. If he was going to some sort of Quirk training facility, he was going to need his fuel. He didn't have any water to wash down anything, so he begrudgingly left the metals in their pouches.

As a foster kid without any stable form of transportation outside of free, public means, Izuku was adept in navigating the train system. Around 35 minutes later, Izuku arrived at his last stop, only half of a kilometer away from his destination.

Checking the time, he was relieved to see that he wasn't going to be late, and if Eraserhead's warning was anything to go by, if he wasn't on time then he'd have likely lost his opportunity.

As Izuku approached, it became apparent that the building he'd been given the address of was a pretty sizable warehouse, standing taller than the buildings surrounded it. Then, Izuku saw the icon above the door.

A golden 'U' layered on top of a golden 'A', the symbol of Yuuei high school, home of the most exclusive hero program in Japan and the producer of consistent top-ranked heroes. Izuku froze, his hand floating above the handle.

 _Yuuei? Am I at a_ Yuuei _training facility?_

Izuku gulped, trying to get rid of the knot forming in his throat. He felt his hand tremble a little bit due to his sudden nervousness. Was Eraserhead somehow affiliated with Yuuei? Did he go to school there and was using their facilities? It was hard to know for certain, underground heroes were notoriously cryptic about just about everything, including where they went to school.

With a deep breath, Izuku closed his eyes, and before he could second guess himself, he grasped the handle and pulled.

The door swung open to reveal a large, open area full to the brim with training equipment, some of which Izuku recognized, some of which he did not. There was traditional fitness equipment tucked away in the corner, stuff like a bench press and large dumbbells. A track looped around the room, and on the inside (where there would normally be a field) there was a bunch of other equipment Izuku didn't recognize, alongside stuff like long jump sandpits and a high jump.

About five meters from the door, standing on the track, stood Eraserhead, wearing the same outfit he'd been wearing the last time Izuku saw him: all black clothing with a grey, odd looking scarf wrapped loosely around his neck and shoulders.

"Good, you showed up," Eraserhead said. "I'd question my judgement if you hadn't."

Izuku didn't say anything, he just nodded in agreement. He still felt a bit awkward, especially after the lecture that Eraserhead had given him last time that they met, but he tried to diffuse the feeling.

Eraserhead looked Izuku up and down, before pulling a blue and white track suit out from behind his back, tossing it to the boy. "Go to the changing rooms and put this on. Did you bring some metals with you?"

Izuku nodded, pulling out the pouches that he'd bound together. Something flashed across Eraserhead's face for a moment at the sight of the pouches, maybe a little bit of a scowl, but it was gone a moment later.

"Get changed, down enough metals for a couple of hours, and then meet me out here in five minutes."

Izuku nodded a third time, rushing over to the changing room.

* * *

The track suit was surprisingly comfortable. Izuku had a lot of space to move around, and it didn't feel like the clothing restricted his movement in any way. He missed the comfortable weight of his tasseled cloak on his back, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Izuku stuffed his school uniform into one of the lockers, as well as his spare pouches of metal. His stomach was comfortably full of iron, steel, pewter, tin, and brass. The metals gave him a sense of familiarity, which helped him relax and calm his nerves, even if just a little. He decided to leave copper, zinc, and bronze in their pouches, since he had no idea what they did yet and didn't want to figure out the hard way. When he left the locker room, the only stuff he had on him was the track suit and a small pouch of coins in his pocket.

When he got out, Eraserhead was waiting for him, looking at his watch. "Could be quicker, but it could be worse. Remember, this time is for you, try not to waste it."

Izuku gulped and nodded. Eraserhead turned around, waving for Izuku to follow.

As they walked, Izuku found it in himself to finally speak up. "Eraserhead, wha-"

"Eraserhead is my field name. Here, call me Aizawa."

"Aizawa-sensei," Izuku started again, "What exactly are we doing here?"

Aizawa let out a sigh, tapping on the outside of his leg impatiently. "I'll give you the short version. In schools, when they have you do physical fitness tests, they don't let you use your Quirk. While that helps put everybody on an even playing field, it's dumb. Today, I'm going to get a baseline for where you are in terms of ability, so that I know what to do with you going forward."

"I-I see," Izuku muttered, continuing to follow directly behind Aizawa. Eventually, they made it over to the sand pit Izuku had seen when he first walked in.

Aizawa cleared his throat. "There's eight tests, the long jump, the fifty meter sprint, grip strength, the softball throw, and a few others. You're allowed full use of the metals you ate before coming here, and the surroundings. Nothing more."

Izuku nodded.

"I pulled your test results from the national test from earlier this year. You were below average for every single area."

Izuku flinched slightly. To say he wasn't physically fit would be an understatement. He was far from fat, in fact he was quite a bit underweight, but he had hardly any muscle on his entire body. Furthermore, he was a little bit taller than most boys his age and lanky, hardly more than skin and bones. The fact that he'd never really worked out or trained before was probably a factor on that front.

 _That doesn't matter that much now, does it? I have pewter to help me,_ he thought.

"This time, with the help of your Quirk, I expect better scores," Aizawa said, tearing Izuku from his thoughts.

Izuku locked eyes with the man, clenching his fist. "I won't let you down!"

The hero simply looked back at Izuku with a flat gaze.

* * *

The first three tests were pretty normal, the distance run, standing toe-touch, and sit-ups. Izuku blew his scores from earlier that year out of the water in terms of the distance run and sit-ups with the assistance of pewter. He'd basically sprinted the entire five kilometers, completing it in an extremely quick eighteen minutes, faster than even some professional athletes. The situps had been easy as well, pewter allowing him to not grow tired, as well as helping to clear his mind and mitigate the throbbing headache he still had.

The standing toe-touch had been a disappointment, since pewter didn't help with his flexibility at all, and so he'd scored about the same as his Quirkless counterpart. Maybe marginally better by just a centimeter or two.

The ball throw, grip strength, and repeated side steps ended up being about the same, with him relying on pewter to get a little edge, marginally increasing his score.

When it finally came time for the last two tests, Izuku was starting to feel nervous. Doubts and fears ran through his mind, taking his focus off of the task at hand. _Am I doing alright? What if I'm underperforming?_

Glancing over at Aizawa didn't help either. The man either had an incredible poker face, or he was just so indifferent that he didn't emote at all. After every test, whether Izuku blew it out of the water(his long distance run) or not (his standing toe touch score), Aizawa simply typed something on his phone, his face plastered with the same, blank, uncaring expression, before motioning Izuku to the site of the next test and giving him directions.

"Fifty meter sprint, pretty self explanatory. When I say go, get across the fifty meters as fast as you can, doesn't matter how. Ready?"

"Yes," Izuku said through gritted teeth, running through strategies in his head. There _had_ to be some other way to make it across the gap faster than just burning pewter. Reflexively, Izuku reached for steel and burned.

Blue lines shot out of his chest, some headed to the ceiling, some attaching to equipment and objects around the area. A few in particular attached to different parts of Aizawa himself. A belt buckle, a cluster of coins in his pocket, and metal aglets on his shoes just to name a few. Izuku shifted his attention to the environment. There weren't many lines that went towards anything he could reasonably use, at least not any that he could see in the few seconds he had before Aizawa made the call to run. He didn't see anything useful until he looked behind him.

A blue line connecting him to something in the ground a few meters back. Most likely either some piece of metal that got caught in the ground when the concrete was poured, or it was a piece of rebar there for support. Either way, pushing on it would shoot him at an angle, but it would get him across faster than pewter infused legs would.

 _It's worth a shot,_ he thought, tightening his jaw and waiting for the cue.

"Go."

Izuku flared steel as much as he could, shoving everything he had against the line in the ground. Luckily, his assumptions were true and his anchor didn't budge. The force of his push ran through Izuku's body as he was thrown forwards, closing the fifty meters in a single steel jump and a mere few seconds. When he landed (with the help of pewter to retain his balance), he found that he'd actually _overshot_ the end by at least ten meters.

Izuku gave himself a little holler of victory, whipping around to catch Aizawa's reaction, or in this case, lack thereof. Of course, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see Aizawa's complete indifference at the score, but it was still a bit disappointing to watch him just type the score into his phone without a single hint as to what he was thinking.

The standing long jump ended with similar results. Izuku practically scored infinity, using the rafters and metal in the roof of the building in combination with iron to essentially keep himself afloat, turning the 'standing long jump' into more of a 'how far can I go without touching the ground' Turns out that the answer was the complete other side of the warehouse, only stopped by the wall blocking his path. Aizawa's ever present indifference only served to irritate Izuku further.

He couldn't help but think, _does he even care? Am I a nuisance to him?_ Izuku considered using brass, just to get _something_ out of the man, but remembered that brass only served to subdue emotions, which would be counterproductive to his goal. His hesitancy to use the metal was also compounded by the memories of a talk he'd had with Yaoyorozu just a few weeks prior.

" _You should be careful with how much you use that emotion metal, especially outside of situations like calming down a crowd. Most people don't like their emotional state being fiddled with, and if you suppress the wrong thing, you could end up really harming somebody's psyche,"_ she'd said.

Izuku shrugged off the thought, jogging back across the warehouse floor to meet back up with Aizawa.

"What's next?" Izuku said, catching his breath with the assistance of a flare of pewter.

"That's it for today. Same time, same place, Wednesday."

 _Wait, that's it?_

"Huh?" was all that escaped Izuku's mouth.

"Today was meant to get a baseline so that I can fully develop your training regimen. We'll get started properly on Wednesday," Aizawa said, turning away from Izuku, "Keep the tracksuit. Change into it each week right when you get here. I'll expect you to be changed and ready to go by three."

Izuku grabbed a handful of clothing, clenching his fists. "How'd I do?" he blurted out.

Aizawa stopped. He looked over his shoulder, long black hair obscuring most of his face. "How you did doesn't matter. Today was just to set a baseline, so don't think about it too much.."

 _What?_ _If it doesn't matter, why'd we do it?_ Izuku shook his head, trying to make sense of the entire situation. When Aizawa turned to walk away this time, Izuku didn't stop him with any more questions, not that he didn't have any. Aizawa's tone just sent the message that he wasn't interested in sticking around for small talk.

" _Don't waste my time"_ is what his entire demeanor insinuated. Izuku bit his lip, holding back his irritation at the hero's behavior and attitude. Odds were that Aizawa was just that type of person, and Izuku would have to get used to it.

He'd _have_ to get used to it, Aizawa's training, which seemed to be along the lines of the apprenticeships that Yaoyorozu had mentioned, was his quickest way to learning how to properly use his Quirk and therefore become a hero. He'd just need to tough out the hard bits.

Izuku released the tension he'd been holding in his shoulders, heading back to the locker rooms to change.

* * *

Momo was lying in her bed, staring boredly at the ceiling. The rest of the house was quiet, as her mom was _still_ at the hospital (something that didn't look to be changing any time in the foreseeable future). In fact, the doctors had notified Momo that they might be moving her mother to a more specialized hospital for domestic abuse victims over in the Shizuoka prefecture.

It meant that she'd have an ever longer commute when she wanted to visit, but if it meant that her mom could get better sooner, then Momo would be happy to commute an extra hour each way.

 _I wonder how Izuku's training went,_ she thought, kicking her legs in the air above her in an attempt to be just _less bored_. She _could_ text him and ask how it went, but he was absolutely horrible at texting back (he left her on read every other time they talked) and even if she did ask, she was going an earful about it on the walk to school the next day anyways, so she figured it wasn't worth it.

Ironically, just as she was turning her attention away from her phone, it began to ring. With a sigh, Momo turned over, looking at the caller id. The second she read who the call was from, she groaned both inwardly and outwardly.

 _Couldn't I just not pick up?_ She considered, _Could make the excuse that I forgot my phone at school._

She seriously considered not picking up the phone, to just let it ring through and listen to the voicemail a few hours later. In the end, though, she couldn't stop herself from grabbing it and accepting the call.

"Hello?" She said, not caring to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"The old man wants to know if you want to meet up with him for your birthday. It's a month out and he's gotta plan out his schedule," a girl's voice came from the other end of the line.

Momo sighed. "Why didn't he call me himself?"

"Hell if I know, didn't care enough to ask," a moment of pause, and then like an impatient child she continued, "I don't like this any more than you do so let's make this quick. Do you want to meet up with him or not?"

Momo paused. She hadn't even considered that her birthday was coming up. So much had happened recently that she hadn't even taken the time to think about it. Some years, she met up with her biological dad for her birthday, and he took her around the rich parts of Tokyo to windowshop. She met up almost every year, not having the heart to turn him down, especially when her mom insisted that she go, and every single time she just came back frustrated and hurt.

"I don't think so," she eventually said, "I've got a lot going on."

"I'll just tell him you don't want to see his ugly face," the girl said.

Momo smiled slightly, a bittersweet one. "You're as charming as ever, Ochako Uraraka."


	11. Chapter 11: Change of Pace

**Chapter 11: Change of Pace**

* * *

 _Hello, I have one thing to say: Linear Algebra can go die in a hole. Studying for that final is the entire reason this chapter took so long to get out, so you can blame that for the long break. Hopefully now that the semester is over I can get some writing done quicker and easier for the next month or so_

* * *

Ochako was not a resentful person, she really wasn't. In fact, she liked to think of herself as quite compassionate, at least when it came to certain things. When she interacted with the house staff, it was always in a kind, grateful manner. She liked to smile and she liked to laugh and she liked to spend time with those that she loved.

She just had a very hard time doing any of those things anymore. It was hard to be happy and wear a smile when you lived in the same house, under the same roof as the two people that ruined your life, under the same roof as the woman who betrayed not only Ochako's trust, but their familial trust.

Ochako plopped onto her bed in the all-too-big room with a sigh, letting the cell phone in her hand haphazardly bounce on the mattress a few times, the "call ended with Yaoyorozu Momo" message still open on the smartphone's screen.

She wanted to leave, to get out of this place and go to a high school far away from this entire mess, to put as much distance between her and the bastard and bitch that abandoned her.

Ochako was not a resentful person. It was just hard to keep a smile on when the mother she loved so much tore their precious family apart, just over ten years ago.

* * *

"Again," Aizawa's voice came for what felt like the thousandth time that day alone. Izuku heaved a breath, attempting to push himself to his feet once again, only for his arms to fail under him. He reached for pewter to give an extra boost, only to find empty metal reserves.

Of course, he wasn't surprised to find nothing there, reaching for pewter was just a bad habit he'd fallen into. He'd been told to burn off all of his metal reserves before practice earlier that week, and then told to not even _bring_ his metals next week.

Three weeks he'd been working under Aizawa through an apprenticeship. He left straight from school to head halfway across the prefecture three times a week, only to get thrown around and beat up and battered for two hours before being sent home again. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant experience.

After their first meeting, Aizawa gave Izuku a full training plan. It included dietary changes, morning runs, mid-day workouts, and evening stretches, all on top off the tri-weekly sessions with Aizawa himself.

His daily schedule had shifted from "get up, go to school, go home, work on homework, go out in the mists, come back home, repeat" to "wake up before the sun is up, do not ingest any metals, go on a 5 kilometer run, absolutely no pewter allowed. Then, come back home, eat about ten kilos of breakfast food (an exaggeration, but after every meal he felt like he was going to explode and still barely met the calorie goal). Then, go to school, give Aizawa's note to the gym teacher to exempt himself from gym class, go to the weight room, lift weights for an hour, head to lunch, eat an absurdly large lunch such that even Yaoyorozu questioned his ability to finish it, then get done with school. If it was a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, he'd go straight from school to Aizawa's lessons, and if it were a Tuesday or Thursday, he'd stop by home and drop off his belongings, only to leave right away again to go make a dent in his fifty hours of community service he was required to do in exchange for breaking the window at the warehouse. After lessons or community service, he'd come home, eat a massive dinner, go upstairs, scramble to finish his homework, sometimes text or call Yaoyorozu afterwards, then go to sleep."

Aizawa's lessons were their own beast entirely. Starting on his _second day_ he'd been forbidden to use any metals until further notice. Izuku had been totally, incredibly confused, but now, three weeks later, he was only 95% confused as to why they hadn't even touched on his Quirk yet. It just didn't make sense.

Izuku tore his attention back to the task at hand, finally forcing himself onto his feet and wiping sweat from the corner of his eye. Everything on his body was sore, but that was starting to become the norm. The soreness in his joints was constant to the point that it was normalcy by now. Aizawa took up a defensive position, nodding to Izuku.

Izuku gritted his teeth and went back on the offensive, rushing towards the professional hero for the hundredth time (that day).

See, Aizawa's training sessions consisted of two parts. The first half was geared around basic physical fitness, using the training equipment and track to hone his body like an intensified workout. The second half was, without fail, hand to hand combat training. In the first week or two, Aizawa had taught Izuku basic offensive and defensive stances and the basics of hand to hand defence. Essentially, he'd gotten a crash course in how to detect when and where and how somebody could attack and how to deal with those attacks, whether it be through deflecting, blocking, or dodging. Only in the last few days had they gotten to the basics of offence, and in those few days, Izuku had kissed the ground more times than he cared to admit.

Of course, this time was no different. Izuku faked a jab at Aizawa's right shoulder, only to redirect mid-punch into a blow towards the gut. He planned on using Aizawa's moment of unbalance from the hit to sweep out the hero's legs from under him. Of course, his plan, just like all other plans of his, didn't work because the first hit didn't even connect. Aizawa grabbed Izuku by the forearm and shoulder, twisting him around, before kicking out his legs and sending Izuku ungracefully onto the mat once more.

"Your form was too obvious, you telegraphed your punch seconds before you did it, and from there it was easy to adapt to the change." Aizawa rattled off. Izuku let his breath come back to him slowly, staring at the ceiling lights that hung above. He tasted a little blood in his mouth, presumably from where the inside of his cheek had collided with his teeth.

Izuku heaved himself up once more, falling into an offensive stance. Aizawa made to take a stance himself, but paused halfway through, before relaxing. "Let's break for today."

Izuku shook his head tiredly. "I…" he panted, "I can still go."

Aizawa didn't shake his head or nod or telegraph any sort of emotion on his face whatsoever. It was something that Izuku had grown used to over the last few weeks, the man just did not show what he was feeling on his face.

Izuku got his answer when Aizawa walked straight by him, merely putting two fingers on Izuku's forehead and giving a slight push. Izuku's knees buckled and he fell to the mat, laying down and staring at the ceiling once more. Aizawa's head bobbed into view a moment later, looking down at him. "Pushing yourself too hard can cause injury, and I think I don't need to explain why injuring yourself would be a bad idea."

Aizawa stepped away, out of Izuku's limited field of view, but Izuku could hear him pacing on the mat a few feet away.

Eventually, the hero's voice came again. "Bring your pewter again on Wednesday. Your overall physical fitness, while still not ideal, has improved drastically over the last couple of weeks. I want to test if that has an effect on the potency of your pewter."

A bottle of water fell to the ground next to Izuku, who gratefully took it and drank.

If Izuku was being completely honest, he wasn't sure how to feel about the whole apprenticeship thing so far. On one hand, he was grateful that AIzawa, a professional hero, would take the time out of his schedule to personally train Izuku, a mere middle schooler with a weird Quirk.

On the other hand, that's what Izuku was here to do, to train his weird Quirk so that he could use it to pass Yuuei's entrance exam and become a professional hero. He thought that these training sessions with Aizawa would be to test out the various aspects of his Quirk, find its limitations, counters, weaknesses, strengths, what metals he could use, what the effects of those were, get gadgets to help with his quirk use, all that kind of stuff.

What had he really gotten? Lots of bruises, sore limbs, a hard and gruelling training regimen, and a basic understanding of hand to hand combat that he obviously couldn't put to use yet (refer to entry one on the list). It was honestly a bit frustrating that they hadn't even touched on his Quirk since the first day.

 _That doesn't matter right now,_ Izuku thought, finally getting up to his feet and heading back towards the locker room to change. _Next time he said to bring pewter. Maybe we'll start on the metals soon!_

Yuuei entrance exams were less than seven months away, and he was running out of time to get prepared.

Izuku walked out of the training facility and was met with a setting sun. Looking down at his hand, he fiddled with a very particular coin, the one that was larger than any Japanese coin and depicted a spiky castle and was adorned with engraved little circular symbols.

It was the coin that the man had thrown at Izuku, recovered from a rooftop as evidence. Izuku didn't want to tell the authorities that he'd been attacked by a mysterious man with a power set identical to his in every way, so he'd made up the excuse that it was a piece of memorabilia from his childhood. The authorities didn't care enough to keep it from him.

The more Izuku looked at the coin, the more he was perplexed by it. He couldn't read the writing on it, that much was certain. It was a long stretch from Japanese, and attempts at googling "circle alphabet' and related terms only game up with oddly disturbing alphabet music videos geared towards children. That wasn't the only thing interesting about it, however. The coin was made out of some sort of blackened steel. Scraping away the upper layers of the coin gave way to a pure, silvery color, which meant just the outside was dark, like it had been blackened or dirtied for long enough to stain the metal.

Izuku slipped the coin back into his pocket and headed back towards the train station. There were so many things that he didn't understand, which didn't sit well with him, but he had no idea when, or even _if_ he'd run into that other man again.

 _What did he say when we fought?_ The memory was a bit foggy, it had happened only a few seconds before he'd been thrown from a rooftop and forced into passing out, afterall. " _Don't get into a pushing fight with another mistborn?" Was that it?_

It was very clear that the two of them had identical powers, for some reason. Quirks were supposed to be unique, sure some had very similar or identical functions, but every single Quirk was in some way unique to the user. That wasn't what Izuku had witnessed. He'd witnessed a man in a cloak identical to Izuku's own jump across rooftops in a way identical to how Izuku did, running at a speed identical to Izuku's pewter boosted legs. There was no doubt about it. That man had the same powers as Izuku did.

From there he could guess and what 'pushing fight' meant. They'd suspended a coin between the two of them by both pushing against it from the exact opposite sides. Izuku had been curious, so he'd done a free body diagram of how the forces lined up after the fact, and sure enough, it made sense why Izuku had been hit by so much force. He was lighter, so he lost the "pushing fight".

The term Izuku didn't know, however, was the last one.

"Mistborn…" Izuku breathed. The word rolled right off of his tongue, and some odd sense of familiarity came with it. "Mistborn," he repeated.

It was oddly fitting. Izuku loved the mists. The world's meteorologists were still in hot debate about where they came from and what caused them, but Izuku didn't care for their origins. He cared that wandering the mists let him feel safe, like he didn't have to hide for once. It was like he didn't have to put on the face that he still put on for the world (despite his heart-to-heart with Yaoyorozu about the topic, he was still reluctant to be himself in anyone's presence but hers).

The point still stood: Izuku loved the mists. There was something comforting about them, and if he could stay out in them forever, he would. It was like-

 _Like I was born to walk in the mists._

Izuku stopped mid-step. The bag he'd been carrying fell to the ground and the people in the crowd veered around him. Izuku's hand twitched as the puzzle pieces stitched themselves together.

The powers, the other man, the term, the mists, the identical cloak, all of it was connected. It had to be.

Why else would the man use the term _mistborn_? Why was it so fitting? Why did he have an identical power set? There was a connection there. Izuku just needed to figure it out.

Why did the mist feel alive, like it reacted to his thoughts and feelings?

 _What was that figure in the mist?_

He'd almost forgotten about it, after everything that was happening. His run in with a figure made entirely out of mist. Water vapor wasn't alive, simple fog didn't solidify and mirror a human's movements. Simple fog didn't react to people.

Simple fog didn't do those things, but the mists did.

There was a connection between Izuku, the other mistborn that had cast Izuku from that balcony that night, and the mists. Izuku wracked his brain.

 _Mistborn, mistborn, mistborn,_ the term fit all too well, and the voice that said it was all too familiar. Where had he heard that voice before? The weird accent, the near textbook annunciation of Japanese, he'd _heard that somewhere before_.

When he finally connected the voice to a face, it all made sense, in the worst possible way.

Izuku kneeled down, ignoring the complaints of the people passing him by. He scrambled through his bag and eventually found his phone. He dialed Yaoyorozu as he stood, pushing his way through the crowd.

The phone rang once. Twice. A third.

Then the line connected. "Hello?"

"Yaoyorozu," Izuku said immediately, cutting her off, "I need you to meet me tonight. After the mists come out. I need someone I can trust to talk to and test something. Can you meet me?"

"Midoriya wha-"

"Can you meet me?" Izuku cut her off.

There was a pause for a moment, and then Yaoyorozu spoke up. "Yeah, when?"

"Meet me outside my place at midnight."

 _Click._

Izuku ended the call and rushed through the crowds. He had a hardware store to visit

* * *

He still had no idea what the connection _was_. He had absolutely no leads on what connected Izuku, the other mistborn, and the mists, but he suspected that he could figure it out if he could track down the other mistborn.

There was so much that made sense once Izuku added the other mistborn to the equation. The fact that he'd been the clerk that sold Izuku the tin, because he knew that it would be a good starter metal. The fact that he sent him samples of other metals as time went on. Was the other mistborn was stringing Izuku along, trying to teach him the ropes? But then why did he try to kill him that night? Or had he not been actually trying to kill him?

There were other things that made sense as well, like the fact that Aizawa had reportedly had a run in with a mistborn that night, which was why he'd been so active in his patrol, but Izuku had never even seen Aizawa until he'd already lost to the other mistborn and was about to pass out in the alley. The other mistborn had obviously led Aizawa and Izuku to each other.

But why? For what reason? What purpose did this all serve? It was like there was a mastermind playing a game of three-dimensional chess, and Izuku was just a pawn. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Izuku could get some answers if he were to track down the other mistborn and get some answers out of him. So, of course, that was his priority: find the other mistborn. SImple. Easy.

Easier said than done.

When Izuku showed up to the hardware shop that he'd gone to when he first learned about the nature of his Quirk, he was met with nothing but odd looks. There wasn't a blond man with an odd face and weird accent working there, nor had there been any time in the last few months. He actually learned that about the same time that he'd showed up to the place, they'd had a break in; the employee that was supposed to be working had been knocked out in the back, their uniform stolen, and the security camera footage wiped.

Of course, that only served to further confirm Izuku's theory. That clerk, the same man that had been sending him metals under the guise of "extra scraps from the warehouse" was the other mistborn. He'd started off by giving Izuku an easy metal to begin off with, tin, one that he couldn't hurt himself by using. Then, as time went on, he drip fed Izuku other metals that he thought he could handle.

Izuku still wasn't sure what the other mistborn's goal was. Everything he'd done so far seemed to conflict. If you just went based off of when he helped Izuku with the metals and giving him samples of metals he could try, then it looked like he was trying to help Izuku get a grasp of his power set, a "teach him the ropes" type thing. Even that had holes in it, like what reason did this unnamed face have for helping some random middle schooler out?

Even more holes got punched in the story when you took into account that the other mistborn had damn near killed him on that rooftop, _and_ led him straight to Aizawa. Did he have some sort of foresight such that he knew Aizawa wouldn't just throw Izuku in jail for illegally using his Quirk?

 _None of this makes sense,_ Izuku thought, walking at a quick pace down the sidewalk towards the nearest train station. His legs screamed in protest, still sore from the day's training. _I need a pick-me-up_.

Izuku didn't even stop walking as he reached around into his bag, pulling out one of his few remaining balls of pewter. He'd still yet to convince Yaoyoorzu to give him any metals as a backup plan, and he was still being rationed by Miss Sakura, so he didn't have much spare metal. Still, this sort of occasion called for a way to clear his mind, right?

Izuku popped the little metal ball into his mouth, ignoring the odd looks from passers-by. He swallowed the metal with some difficulty, and a moment later a reservoir of power popped to live inside him. Burning it nearly did away with the soreness and gave him the sense of balance that he missed having all the time.

Izuku let out a breath of relief, sighing heavily. _Ok, now, if I were a mysterious man who went around toying with teenagers lives, where would I hide?_

Well, first problem. He was neither mysterious nor the type to toy with other people's lives, so that immediately made things a hundred times harder. Izuku wracked his brain as he walked home, trying to come of with a lead, _any_ lead.

Yet, by the time he got home, he'd shot down every idea he was able to come up with. The person obviously knew their way around not being seen, he'd been watching Izuku for long enough to be exactly where he was going to be and why he needed to be there, so catching the man following him was probably out of the picture. Izuku also had absolutely no idea where people that didn't want to be found hid. That was probably the type of thing that Aizawa would know, but Izuku wasn't jumping at the thought of asking the grumpy hero.

Izuku sighed, putting his bag down as he walked in the door to the foster home, letting out a half-hearted "I'm back."

"Oh, Izuku," Miss Sakura's voice came a moment later. She was on the couch, watching one of her bad foreign soap operas again. "Yaoyorozu came by asking for you. Something about homework. She asked me to tell you to head over there as soon as you could when you get back."

Izuku rolled his shoulders forward. "When did she come by?"

"Oh, about twenty minutes ago, or so. Why?"

 _So it was after I called her, then_. Izuku thought. "No reason. I'll head over, just let me get settled down for a little."

Izuku sighed and slogged up the stairs towards his room. As urgent as this whole thing with the other mistborn was, it could wait until after he's had a proper nap.

* * *

" _Ochako, honey, mommy won't be around during the day as much anymore."_

 _Ochako looked up at her mother with big, beady eyes. She waddled forwards and wrapped her arms around her mother's leg, staring straight up at the woman's face. "Why, mommy?"_

 _Little Ochako didn't quite see the flinch on her mother's face, hidden behind a feign smile. "Money is a little bit hard right now, so I'm going to get a job to make ends meet. Don't worry, though. I'll still be around in the mornings and at night, and daddy will be home whenever he isn't working with the company."_

 _Ochako tilted her head slightly, but then cheerfully squeezed her mother's leg tighter. "If you get a job, it'll help make everything better, right? Things will be like normal, still?"_

" _Of course. Mommy will just be a little bit busier." Ochako's mother smiled._

 _Ochako released herself from the limb and did a little lap around the kitchen table. "Okay!"_

 _Ochako's family was a struggling but happy one. Sometimes, putting dinner on the table was hard, especially after a long day of working with the struggling construction company, but they always made sure to eat together every night. Ochako's mother and father hardly ever fought, and when they did, apologies were made by the end of the day, and they were sure to never bring Ochako into it._

 _They were close, the very definition of a happy family, even if things were a struggle sometimes._

* * *

When Izuku's alarm went off, blaring in his ear and tearing him from his extended nap, it nearly scared him out of his skin. He'd set himself an alarm for just before midnight, the time that he was supposed to meet Yaoyorozu, but he hadn't expected to actually be awoken by it.

 _I must have been more tired than I thought,_ Izuku thought. By the time he'd gotten home, it was just past six, and he'd passed out no later than six-thirty. That meant he'd been asleep for five hours. Izuku rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, tiredly pushing himself off of the bed.

He glanced over at his desk, still not completely awake, and took note of the homework that was laid out across the surface, half-completed.

 _That can wait,_ Izuku thought, pushing himself up and off of the bed. He walked over to the desk in question and reached under it. Taped haphazardly to the underside of his desk was a little pouch of metals, put under there in the case that he needed to use his metals for something and didn't quite have Miss Sakura's approval, since she was the one currently in control of what metals he had and when. Back when he was freshly released from the hospital, he'd just thrown a bunch of the spare flakes and shavings and beads into the bag and hid it before Miss Sakura confiscated all of it, just in case he needed to use them.

He took a pinch of metals and downed them with the help of some water. Five separate reserves sprang to life inside of him, and he immediately started simmering both tin and pewter. Izuku's world became brighter, louder, and more crisp as his leftover tiredness faded away and the residual pain disappeared. Izuku let out a breath of relief and changed quickly into a pair of sweats and a tee-shirt, before unlatching his window and hopping out onto the ledge, before jumping down into the alley below with the help of a little steel.

Only when his feet touched the cold pavement did he realize that he forgot shoes. _Whoops._

Thinking nothing of it, Izuku jogged out of the alley, taking a deep breath of mist-filled air. Like she always was, Yaoyorozu was early, leaning up against a street lamp across the street from the foster home. Izuku smiled and jogged over.

As soon as he got close, Yaoyorozu let out a heavy, deliberate yawn. "Why are you not wearing shoes?"

"Look," Izuku said, completely and utterly ignoring her question regarding the state of his toes. "I've got this theory. I was walking home from the training session with Aizawa-sensei, and I got to thinking." Izuku started pacing, hand to his chin.

Izuku waved to the mist. "What is all of this. To you, I mean?"

Yaoyorozu tilted her head, a confused frown coming across her face. "What?"

"The mist," Izuku elaborated, "what is the mist to you?"

"It's…I'm not sure I understand the question."

Izuku tapped his foot, not completely sure about how to rephrase. "Yaoyorozu, there's something going on. I'm not sure what it is, but there's some sort of connection here. This mist isn't natural, or at least it doesn't obey any scientific phenomena that we've ever observed. There's no weather pattern on earth that is so _consistent_."

"Yeah, well, what does that have to do with anything?" Yaoyorozu shifted, running a hand through her hair. She hardly ever had it down when Izuku was around her normally, but between the hair, pajama pants, and too-big-hoodie, she looked like she'd just gotten out of bed. Izuku shook his head, regaining his focus.

"Yaoyorozu, I think there's some sort of connection between the mists and my Quirk."

"That's-what?"

"This is what I needed to test, actually," Izuku said, "I need you to use your Quirk, just a little is fine. Make anything you'd like."

Yaoyorozu raised her eyebrow at him, and Izuku looked back at her insistently. With a sigh, she rolled up her sleeve and a second later, light, almost translucent sparkles formed around her forearm, signaling that she was using her quirk. Izuku's eyes darted to the various places that the mist came into contact with skin, as well as the ground near her.

Sure enough, the mist was completely static, no movement whatsoever apart from the occasional gust that blew through.

"Do you notice how the fog doesn't move? It doesn't react to you using your quirk at all."

Yaoyorozu took a moment to look down at herself and then nodded in the affirmative. She stopped using her Quirk and brushed off a pile of black dust that Izuku could only assume was carbon, before rolling back up her sleeve.

"Okay," Izuku said, "Now look at this." He cut off his metals, and the mists were completely still around him, just how they had been with Yaoyorozu a moment before while she was using her quirk.

"I'm not using any metals right now. No movement, just like you. Now, I'm going to burn pewter." Izuku did so, and apart from the normal change that he noticed when he used the metal, he also kept a watchful eye on the mist. He stuck his arm out in front of Yaoyorozu.

Where the mist was normally just an amorphous lump of water vapor, now the mist _curled_ off of his skin. It looked like tendrils, small arms of mist broke off from the cloud, and curled around lightly around his skin, sometimes wrapping around a limb and sometimes retracting away from his skin. It was hardly noticeable, you'd need to be looking for it in order to even see it in the first place, but it was definitely there.

Yaoyorozu narrowed her eyes, but then recoiled slightly as she saw it. "Okay, I'll admit, that's weird."

Izuku nodded in agreement and Yaoyorozu continued. "You're sure that it isn't like, your body automatically pulling on the slight polarity of water molecules or something? With how iron and steel work, it's not too far fetched to say there could be some side effects of using some metal subconsciously or something, or possibly just a side effect of burning creating a weak magnetic field."

Izuku paused, _That's not a bad explanation to come up with so quickly._

"I'm honestly not sure. All I know is that this is weird, and with all the other unexplainable things with this mist, there's so many questions that get brought up with every single one you answer."

Silence fell between them for a moment. Izuku was too deep in thought, trying to make some sort of connection, to the point that he barely noticed when Yaoyorozu cleared her throat.

"Is that the only thing you were basing this whole 'connection' thing off of? "

Izuku stopped pacing, as if he'd only just remembered that Yaoyorozu existed in the first place. "Oh, there's...other stuff?"

Yayorozu raised an eyebrow. "Other stuff."

"Yeah, other stuff."

"Was the doctor's explanation not good enough or something? Is there a reason that it has to be more complicated or special?" Yaoyorzu had a little bit of bite to her tone. It wasn't aggressive, but more of a little jab thrown in with a legitimate question.

Izuku winced, but shot back. "Momo, there was another guy on that roof."

Yaoyorozu froze. Izuku froze.

 _There goes the whole "not getting other people involved" part of the plan._

"What do you mean?" Yaoyorozu said, after what felt like a year of silence.

"On the night that Aizawa caught me, the only reason I ran into him in the first place is because there was another person I was chasing. Or, I think it was more along the lines of that they were leading me on," Izuku explained. He delved into detail about everything that happened that night, from the moment he ran into the other mistborn to the moment that he was thrown off the roof.

"There's gotta be some sort of connection and…" Izuku paused in his rant. "I didn't want to get anyone else involved in this. Whatever is happening has something to do with me and me alone, I shouldn't have brought you into this."

Izuku looked up from where he'd been staring at the ground, expecting...well, he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting to see in Yaoyorozu's face. Disappointment in his secret keeping, maybe? Instead, all he got was an eyeroll.

"You get so caught up in your ranting sometimes that it's almost impossible to stop you, so I figured I'd just let you keep going," she said. Izuku flushed as she continued. "Like you said, this is your business, and you should be the one to solve it. If what you've told me is true, then this person might be the missing link, and I know you're going to go after it, no matter what I say."

Izuku didn't respond, mostly because she hit it right on the dot. Whether she tried to encourage or discourage him, he planned on seeking out the other mistborn and trying to get answers no matter what. Like Yaoyorozu said, this man was the missing link that connected everything, and Izuku _hated_ being in the dark about anything, especially when it came to something as pivotal to his future as his Quirk.

There was also the possibility nagging at the back of his mind that he'd tried not to think about, as well. Considering that the man had not only identical powers to Izuku, but an identical cloak as well as the fact that he seemed to have been watching Izuku for a while, at least long enough to know exactly where to be and when once Izuku started to come into his Quirk, the man could very well have information about Izuku's _past_ , as well.

He might be able to figure out why he was so different, who his biological parents were, and where he came from before ending up on Midoriya Inko's doorstep.

"That being said," Yaoyorozu said, bringing Izuku out of his thoughts, "I won't tell anyone about this whole situation, under _one_ condition."

Izuku nodded, looking at her expectantly.

"Please, _please_ be careful. I don't want to see you in the hospital or worse because you recklessly went after this person and got in over your head. At least _try_ to not put yourself in needless danger, and _attempt_ to do it legally, please?"

Izuku let out a breath of relief and smiled. "I can do that. You don't need to worry about me."

"Oh, I'm definitely going to worry about you, I'll just keep quiet about it."

Izuku's smile widened and he nodded. Yaoyorozu pushed herself up off of the streetlamp she'd been leaning on and started heading back towards her home.

"Goodnight, Midoriya."

"Goodnight."

As she walked away, Yaoyorozu looked over her shoulder one more time. "And for the sake of all things holy, _please_ put on shoes if you're going to go outside."

* * *

 _Things were normal for a while. For the first year or so after her mother started working, at least. Ochako's father worked with the construction firm, so his hours were inconsistent at best. Some days he'd be home to play with her all day, but other times he'd be gone from home on long work trips for days at a time._

 _Ochako's mother came home consistently at six in the evening and always made dinner for everyone, whether 'everyone' was the entire family or just Ochako and herself because Ochako's father was away on a business trip._

 _Even though the time they spent together was becoming more and more sparse, they still spent a lot of time together when they could. Sometimes Ochako's mother was too busy or preoccupied with leftover work, or her father was away, but they watched movies or played together whenever possible._

 _For Ochako, everything was good, for the most part. Maybe marginally more lonely than before, but still good._

 _That is, it was good up until her mother started staying late at work. A six o'clock return home quickly turned to seven, then eight, then later. There were nights where Ochako's mother would be gone before Ochako woke up, and then wouldn't be back home until after she'd gone to sleep._

 _The time they spent together became more and more sparse. Family movie nights turned into "Dad and Daughter" movie nights on the days that he was home, and they days he wasn't, Ochako's mother would just put on a random movie and then walk out of the room if she was even there to put it on in the first place, leaving Ochako alone. Family playdates ended up falling into a very similar vein. Ochako had to learn to cook for herself at the ripe age of seven if she wanted to eat dinner on the nights that her father was away and her mother was working late._

 _It was like Ochako was watching her family become more separated before her eyes. It wasn't like she didn't try to make it work, either. She understood that adults have to work and sometimes work was stressful, and she also understood that her mother working so much was part of the reason they weren't struggling as much financially anymore, but it still hurt to only see her mother for a few hours a week._

 _So, of course, Ochako did what she could. She spent every moment she could with her father when he was home, and the bond they shared grew stronger and stronger, to the point that Ochako trusted him more than she even trusted herself sometimes. She tried to do the same with her mother, but it was hard when the woman worked longer and longer hours, to the point that she didn't even come home on some days. To make matters worse, the times that she_ was _home she shrugged Ochako off half the time, making up some sort of excuse like "mommy has a lot of work to do" or "mommy is going to bed early tonight"._

 _Ochako tried to make it work and stay as positive as possible. Being a kid helped with that positivity as well, kids are naturally carefree. From the outside, they looked like a happy family, albeit with a workaholic wife and businessman husband._

 _That is, Ochako thought they were happy until the day her mother filed for divorce._


	12. Chapter 12: Encounter

**Chapter 12: Encounter**

* * *

 _Me: doesn't get any inspiration to write for almost the entirety of december  
_ _Also me: writes 10k words worth of kimetsu no yaiba projects, an entire chapter of this, plus an entire half of the next chapter, all in the span of 2 weeks after semester starts again.  
If things keep going this way, maybe we'll have a relatively normal upload schedule soon. That being said, I hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

Wednesday came before Izuku was quite ready for it. Ever since he started training under Eraserhead, the days seemed to pass far, far quicker than they had in the preceding weeks - partly due to his new habit of actually sleeping. After his midnight meetup with Momo, he'd spent his Tuesday at school and then volunteering (he was extremely relieved that he'd gotten almost halfway through his required fifty hours, so he'd be free for a _few_ more hours a week soon enough).

For what felt like (and probably was) the fiftieth time since he boarded the light rail, Izuku checked that he had all of his metals. Today was the first time in three weeks that Aizawa was planning on doing something related to Izuku's Quirk, there was no way he was going to mess it up by doing something as stupid as leaving one of his metals at home.

He sat for a while, nervously tapping his foot and checking the time repeatedly until the train finally pulled into the station. Naturally, when the doors slid open, he was the first one off.

When he opened the door to the training facility. Aizawa was already waiting inside, like he always was. The man may have given off the impression of being lazy (in every sense of the word) but at least he was never late. The doors creaked open and Izuku stepped through, clutching his bag tightly in his anticipation. Aizawa looked over his shoulder and tilted his head to the changing rooms.

 _Get changed, don't wait for me to order you around,_ the look said. Izuku sped off to the locker rooms, not wanting to waste any time.

 _I wonder if any of these other lockers are ever used,_ he thought, gazing around the room. With lockers lining every wall, there had to be at least a couple hundred in there; Izuku only ever used one, and he hadn't seen a single other person use the facility or locker room at the same time as Izuku's training sessions.

 _No time to waste,_ Izuku reminded himself. He pulled on the blue tracksuit, pulled his belt of metals, counting all 8 bags of metals to make sure he had all 8 that he knew about so far. _Tin, Pewter, Iron, Steel, Brass, and the new ones, Copper, Bronze, and Zinc._

He knew for a _fact_ that the last 3 did _something,_ that much was proved by his discovery a few days previous that the origin of those samples was none other than the other mistborn himself. He still wasn't sure if _all_ metals had some sort of effect or if it was only a select few, but he at least was certain that those 3 had some sort of effect.

Izuku tied the belt around his waist and hurried out of the locker room with still a couple of minutes to spare.

"Did you bring all of your metals?" Aizawa asked the question before the locker room door had even completely shut behind Izuku.

Izuku gestured to his belt. "I brought all of them, just in case. I know you said that we're just going to be working with pewter today, but I figured that it might be good to have a backup, just in case you changed your mind, because I really wanted to work on my quirk and - "

"Midoriya." Aizawa put up a single hand, cutting off the boy's rambling instantly. "I was going to say that I'm glad you did. I had an idea last night and it involves all of them."

Izuku let himself have a little grin.

Aizawa waved him forwards. "We'll start with the physical tests like originally planned, so take some pewter."

As such, they jumped straight into the physical fitness tests that they'd done just a few weeks prior Long distance run, fifty meter dash, ball toss, standing toe-touch, Izuku tried his best on every single one, just how he had almost a month prior. Between all the training he'd done with Aizawa and all the fitness training he'd been doing outside of school, he expected to see a noticeable improvement to his scores

That being what it was, it comes as no surprise that he'd be completely and utterly confused when the results came back almost perfectly matching his previous scores.

Ball Throw? Half a meter off.

Long distance run? Matched it within three seconds.

"Well," Aizawa muttered, looking at his phone, brow furrowing, "that's not quite what I expected."

"Do you…" Izuku panted, still a little out of breath from the long distance run he'd just completed. "Do you need me to try again? I can do better, I swear it!"

Izuku was, afterall, just as distraught (if not even more concerned) at the complete lack of progress.

Aizawa shook his head. "No, I don't think you can."

Izuku's heart sunk. He was already naturally pale, he'd been told he had the complexion of a westerner, but any color left in his face left it, leaving an almost skeleton-white face, stuck in a flat, horrified gaze.

When Izuku spoke, his voice came as barely more than a whisper. It was all he could muster. "L-let me try again."

Aizawa didn't even look up from his phone as he squinted at the results. "No, I don't think that will be necessary," he muttered.

Izuku reached out a shaky arm towards his mentor. _Soon to be ex-mentor_ , part of the back of his mind echoed. Not even a flare of pewter could keep the harsh trembling out of his hand.

"Please," he said, "You've gotta let me try again."

Finally, Aizawa looked over, his blank expression boring into Izuku as he looked up into the taller man's bloodshot eyes.

Then, "I think your pewter is capped somehow."

Silence.

"Huh?"

Aizawa sighed. "I think that pewter is a soft boost up to a hard cap. That's the only thing that makes sense for this lack of change. I can _see_ a difference in your fitness level, not having any improvement doesn't make sense."

"Wait, so that means you're not kicking me out?"

"What?" Aizawa blinked. Then, after a moment of awkward silence, he sighed, eyes rolling back in his head as he took a step away. "I really need to work on my phrasing." He spun around, placing his hands on Izuku's shoulders, who was still frozen like a statue. "Let me be clear. I see potential in you, and that is one of the only reasons you're here. If I see potential in someone, I would not drop them as a student off of one test of ability. Even if assessing and judging your progress was the point of that last exercise, which it was not, I would not kick you out based off of just that, so please do not have a meltdown in the middle of my training floor. Do I make myself clear?"

Izuku gulped, part of him wanting to melt from relief and the other part of him oddly intimidated by the sudden seriousness. He nodded quickly, coming to his senses. Aizawa took his hands off of Izuku's shoulders and it felt like weights had been taken off. His legs wobbled, and even a flare of pewter didn't stabilize them.

"Okay," Aizawa finally said, "Water break. We still have more to do today, so get ahold of yourself and come back ready to work."

Izuku sped off without another word towards the water fountain.

* * *

"Uraraka-san, your mother is calling for you for dinner," a voice called from the other side of Ochako's massive bedroom. She looked up from her textbook, _Fundamentals of Chemistry and Basic Molecular Theory,_ \- assigned reading by her private tutor - to see one of the estate's maids standing at the door.

Ochako froze for a moment, thinking over the comment. When she didn't respond for some time, the maid took another step in the door, making her presence known. Finally, Ochako spoke up. "Could you just bring it to me? I'm just a little bit tied up in the middle of this chapter."

It was, of course, a lie. She'd been staring at the same page for ten minutes, eyes scanning the first word a hundred times, completely unable to slog through any more of the boring material.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but your mother specifically requested your presence."

Ochako let out a silent sigh and marked her page, shutting the book. She turned to the maid and forced a smile, standing. "Alright, I'll be down shortly."

As the maid bowed and turned to leave, Ochako got a glimpse of her face. Before the woman could leave, Ochako called out. "Nagisa-san, I thought I mentioned that you should just call Uraraka. Uraraka-san if you must use honorifics."

The maid, who Ochako now recognized as Nagisa, one of the fifty maids at the Yaoyorozu estate, stopped in the doorway for a moment. Then, she turned and bowed slightly again. "Of course, Uraraka-san."

With that, she was gone.

It had taken Ochako about a year to learn all of the maids' names. At the time, and even now, she thought that putting in the effort to learn the names of the housestaff would be a good first step to becoming friendlier, putting herself on an even field, in a way. It didn't take her long to learn that, with an estate of this size, that was _not_ the norm.

Ochako looked down at herself. Her hair was disheveled, as she hadn't done anything with it since she got out of the shower earlier that day, and she was hardly decent, just wearing a big white tee-shirt that was two sizes too big and whatever pair of shorts that had been on the top of the pile in her drawer.

 _Good enough,_ she shrugged, putting on the nearest pair of slippers.

* * *

"As I was saying before," Aizawa started, "I think that your pewter has a hard cap to its capabilities, at least for now. There's a lot of explanations that would make sense, but that seems the most likely."

Izuku took another drink from his water bottle. After he calmed down, he headed over towards Aizawa, now eager to continue their conversation. "What do you mean by a 'hard cap'?"

"Think of it like this: there's a threshold to which your physical abilities are raised when you burn pewter. Depending on the intensity of the burn, that threshold will be higher or lower, but no matter what, that threshold is the same. A baby could use pewter and be as strong as a bodybuilder because they are both being boosted to the same level."

 _Boosted to the same level..._ Izuku thought.

"I could still be wrong," Aizawa said, "there's still definitely the possibility of it working like any other muscle, in that the effect of pewter will get stronger the more you use it, but some gut feeling tells me that isn't the case."

"Wait," Izuku interrupted, gears turning, "If I can just use pewter to get that boost, does that mean I still need to train as hard? I mean, if pewter is going to bring me to the same level anyways, what's the point?"  
A scowl. "You're still going to train."

Izuku's shoulders slumped, but he couldn't be too mad. It was still probably a good idea to be in shape, either way. "Well, can we start training with my Qui - "

Aizawa cut him off, getting to his feet.. "Water break is over. You still have all of the metals on you, then?"

 _That was a quick change of subject._ It could've given him metaphorical whiplash with how fast Aizawa pivoted.

"I-" he started, a bit caught off guard. Then he tapped at his belt. "Yeah, they're all here."

"Good, come this way." Aizawa led him towards the other end of the training facility, past the weight lifting section and towards a room labelled "Staff Only."

The man ignored the sign and pushed through the door, motioning for Izuku to follow. He complied, tailing behind the hero as they walked into a back hallway, past a stack of boxes and into a room at the far end of the cramped back hall.

When Aizawa turned on the light, it flickered on and off a few times before finally coming to life, revealing a small room that looked like an injury recovery or athletic training room. There was a recovery bike in one corner, a counter with various bottles and assorted medical equipment on it, and then a tiny desk in another corner.

Aizawa made a beeline for the counter, and so Izuku followed. He stood silently as the hero fidgeted with something in one of the cabinets. When he finally pulled out a scale, Izuku only got a little bit more confused.

"What are we doing?"

"Something to help with your training," his mentor replied dispassionately.

 _Real helpful,_ Izuku thought with just a tad of exasperation.

"Okay," Aizawa said, powering the scale on, "I need you to mass out an equal amount of each metal. There's a test we need to do with them."

"Which metals?" Izuku asked, removing the belt from his waist and putting the eight individual pouches on the counter.

Aizawa looked at the pouches, then at his student, and then back to the pouches. "Didn't you mention that you only had five that you knew about?"

Izuku scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, I only know what brass, iron, steel, pewter, and tin do. The other three that are there, zinc, copper, and bronze, I've had them for a while, I just haven't tested them yet."

Aizawa ran a hand through his unkempt, ragged hair as he let out a heavy sigh. He peeked into the bags, then untied the knots holding on the pouches for the last three metals. Izuku watched as he stashed the three bags in the inner pocket of his jacket. "We will only be working with the metals we know for now. I will bring these back out when I see that you are far enough through your training and will not do anything stupid with them."

Izuku gritted his teeth and bit back a complaint, instead opting to nod softly, turning his attention back to the metals he was _allowed_ to have. Even still, he couldn't help but feel a little angry at the sudden confiscation.

 _I spent my hard-earned allowance on those!_ he lamented to himself. Focusing back on the task at hand, Izuku reached over to the counter and started massing out samples of each metal.

Aizawa must've noticed the look on Izuku's face at having his extra metals confiscated, as he spoke up a moment later. "You've got a history of lacking self-control and the last thing I need you doing is getting yourself nose-deep in vigilantism again while trying to test out new abilities."

Izuku gulped and nodded, turning his attention to the scale. When he had sixty grams of every metal sitting in little piles on the counter, he turned to his mentor.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. You're going to burn each sample as hard as you can, going through it as fast as possible. You'll tell me when you start and then you'll tell me when it's out."

 _What could this possibly be for?_ Izuku thought. _Must be something logistical, or developing a training regimen for the Quirk?_

Either way, if it meant that he was going to get more training and work done with his Quirk and prepare himself to get into Yuuei, then he was happy to do it.

As he burned each metal, he was unsurprised to see that it came back almost exactly what he'd expected. Pewter burned almost four times as fast as iron and steel, which both burned at the same rate. Past that, tin burned half as quickly as iron and steel, and brass was somewhere in between tin and iron or steel.

All in all, the timing only took about ten minutes with such small samples. At the end, Aizawa said something Izuku wasn't quite expecting.

"That's all we'll need for your metals for now. You can go put them away and I'll let you know next time you need to bring them."

 _Huh?_ Izuku frowned. "I thought we were working with my Quirk today?"

"I was doing some testing for your Quirk today," the man clarified. "We haven't gotten to that point in your training yet. I will let you know when we get there."

"I - ' Izuku fumbled, not sure how to express himself. He'd been anticipating getting to work on figuring out just how his Quirk worked and all the things he could use it for, not to be told he had to wait even longer.

 _Besides, if I want to have a chance against that other Mistborn, I need to know how to use my full skill set_.

What ended up coming out of his mouth was something else entirely. "The Yuuei entrance exam is in less than five months!"

Aizawa whipped around. "I know. I will have you prepared for that when it comes," he snapped. Izuku was taken aback by the sudden display of emotion from the normally emotionally mute man. "You aren't ready to work with your Quirk fully yet. You're getting better, but you came into this apprenticeship with absolutely zero experience in fighting nor any experience training. We will get to your Quirk in time"

Izuku shrunk back. A little part of him in the back of his mind wanted to retort or complain more, but the sane part of his mind kept it in check; angering Aizawa would be a very bad idea.

 _Why does it matter if I'm not physically fit if Pewter is brings me to the same level, anyways?_ The same part of his head thought. Izuku shook the thoughts away and followed after Aizawa, who had left the room, presumably on his way back to the training room.

* * *

"Ochako, couldn't you have gotten a little bit more dressed up?" her mother's voice called across the dinner table. It was far too large for the measly three people seated at it. Ochako looked up from her meal, having barely poked at it.

Her mother sat at the other end of the table, right next to her husband, Yaoyorozu Daichi. On the menu for tonight was yet another absurdly expensive dinner of Wagyu beef covered in a Japanese mushroom gravy sauce with a side of broccolini and some sort of exotic potato Ochako hadn't even heard of before moving in at the Yaoyorozu estate.

Ochako eyed her mother from across the room, electing to not respond. She just wasn't in the mood for yet another passive-aggressive back-and-forth with her right now. With a sigh, Ochako tore her gaze away from her mother and back to her food, forcing herself to pick up a steak knife.

She may not have an appetite (funny, she'd had one before she was forced to eat with her mother), but she didn't want to be wasteful by not eating the meal that the chef had worked hard to prepare. The explosion of flavors that filled her mouth contrasted drastically with her sour mood.

"Uraraka," Ochako heard the man's voice but didn't look up from her plate. "Your mother and I had something that we wished to speak to you about?"

"What was it?"

"Well, sweetie," her mother started, "we were wondering what your plans were for high school?"

Ochako bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from retorting. _Since when do you care what I do?_

"Okay," is all that came out of her mouth.

A heavy silence fell around the table for once more, one that Ochako didn't quite feel like remedying. It wasn't long before Daichi cleared his throat. "Do you like the private tutor you have now? We can keep her on to do your high school level education, if you'd like."

"Does it really matter what I want to do?" Ochako's grip tightened on her utensils. "You're just going to make me do what you think is the 'best option', right?"

Ochako forced herself to relax a little, loosening her grip on her knife enough to properly use it, cutting off another chunk from her steak. It almost felt like it had lost flavor over the course of the short conversation, gone from a delicious, fatty piece of meat to sandpaper on her tongue.

"Ochako!" her mother cried out, sounding appalled. Ochako couldn't be completely sure if that was it, as she didn't want to look up and look the woman in the eyes, but her tone was a dead giveaway. "For your information, we wanted to give you a real choice here. If you want to stay here, we'll keep the tutor, and if you want to go somewhere, wherever you pick to go, Daichi will pay for the tuition."

"A _real choice_ , huh?" Ochako mumbled, "because we both know I've had _a lot_ of those around here." At that, her mother gasped and her husband let out a big sigh.

It wasn't like she _hadn't_ given thought to what she wanted to do for high school. Up until this point, she'd thought about it a few times, looking at a bunch of different places that she could go, but more often than not she'd just assumed that her mother was going to force her to stay at home with a private tutor. When she _did_ think about going other places, though, there was one thing that all the locations had in common: she didn't want to go anywhere nearby.

She'd looked at schools all over Japan and even considered going out of the country (she ultimately decided that, since she wasn't good with any other languages, she should stay domestic) all because she wanted to get out of this place.

"If I'm being honest," her mother said after a while, "I'd prefer it if you stayed close so that we could keep you safe. Maybe Shuchiin Academy? Or, if you'd prefer to do something like art or music, there's Yokohama?"

Ochako bit her lip, studying her plate. She'd gotten through most of the steak and potatoes, although the broccolini was relatively untouched. She wasn't exactly hungry in the first place, she'd just been eating it out of respect for the chef and the expensiveness of the plate, and so she decided that she'd eaten enough. She stood from the table, letting the chair skid backwards on the marble floor loudly.

"I'm not that hungry," she said, "and I've got a lot of homework to work on so I'll -"

"Uraraka Ochako!" her mother called out, interrupting her. "We're trying to have a conversation here! Can't you just be helpful and talk to us?"

Ochako gazed across the room, meeting her mother's eyes for the first time since she joined them for dinner. It was almost like seeing the face of a stranger, between how much makeup caked her face and the look in her eyes that made it like looking at a person you didn't know, maybe a loose acquaintance at best. Definitely not the eyes of someone you would see as your mother.

"Okay, I'll give you an answer," Ochako said, gripping the doorframe tightly with one hand, the other clenching, nails digging into her palms.

It wasn't like the answer she came up with had come out of nowhere. She'd considered it many times, since it fit all the criteria. It was far away, prestigious enough that Daichi would certainly agree to it, even if just to show off to his 'friends', and it wasn't somewhere she'd be 'sheltered' like her mother wanted. Ochako felt like it was the place that she'd gain the most independence out of anywhere else she'd looked at.

Afterall, prospective heroes had to be pretty independent.

"I'll go to Yuuei, the heroics program."

Ochako didn't bother to wait around for her mother's reaction. The gasp she heard as she left the room was telling enough. Feeling sick to her stomach, Ochako sped back up towards her room on the other side of the estate, hoping that it would be another two weeks before she'd have to come face to face with the woman again.

* * *

The rest of Izuku's training session after his small disagreement with Aizawa could only be described as awkward. The man had Izuku work with strength training for about half an hour before they jumped right back into hand-to-hand combat training. The homeless fashionista didn't act like anything was wrong, but Izuku had an uneasy feeling in his gut that he'd done something wrong.

 _It was a justified concern, though!_ He reasoned with himself, _I started working under Aizawa-sensei so that I could work on my Quirk and get prepared for Yuuei's entrance exam, and all we've done with it in over a month now is some fitness testing._

It was safe to say that Izuku wasn't quite in the best mood as he walked to the train station, covered in a fresh set of bruises. He was getting better, that much was certain, but he still couldn't so much as land a solid hit on the professional hero without his face meeting the mat.

The entire discovery on the nature of the other Mistborn's existence was still worrying Izuku, as well. The fact that he'd obviously been keeping tabs on Izuku for months, possibly longer, didn't help to calm the unease. As much as Izuku would like to say that he didn't seem to be a villain or anything like that, the man _had_ thrown Izuku off of a building, so it was safe to say things weren't exactly clear on whether he was friend or foe.

Still, there was something that kept itching at the back of Izuku's mind every time he thought back on the topic. _Why did he help me? Why did he send me metals and help me discover my Quirk? What's his motive here?_

Izuku was so involved in his thoughts that, next thing he knew, he was standing at his home's doorstep. He swung the door open with a heavy sigh, laying his backpack down inside the door.

"I'm home…" he called tiredly. His whole body ached and he'd run out of pewter reserve on his way home and hadn't refreshed it yet.

"Izukkun!" one of the other foster children, Hana, squealed, running over from where she and a few others had been watching television on the couch. Izuku smiled, patting her on the head as she threw her arms around his leg.

"Where's MIss Sakura?" he asked, attempting to free his leg, only to be met with minimal success.

"Sakura's getting groceries!" another one of the children called, bouncing around on the couch.

"Be careful!" Izuku said, "you might slip and hurt yourself!"

"'Kay!"

Izuku let out a sigh. For the last few months, he'd hardly been home at the right time to be around the other foster children. Typically, he got home before they did, as his middle school got out of class before Sakura even left to go pick them up from the nearby elementary, and he had a tendency to lock himself in his room for hours on end when he got home.

This last month, however, despite the fact that he was only home a fraction of the time he normally was, he'd spent much more time with the other children. Now that he was getting home _after_ them, it was hard to stop them from all clinging onto him and not letting him retreat to the dark confines of his room.

"Izukkun, do the floaty spoon thing!" one of the children yelled. At least two other kids also screamed out in agreement. "The spoon! Do the spoon thing!"

"Okay, okay," Izuku finally said after a third child threw themselves onto him, "Maybe tomorrow. I've got some homework I need to do, so you all should go back to watching TV."

A chorus of complaints and a gallery of frowns nearly broke Izuku's resolve, but he _did_ have a lot of homework to do, as his schedule lately didn't really leave him much down time.

Gradually, the children dispersed, either going back to what they were doing before he came home, or getting distracted by something entirely new. Either way, Izuku was finally able to escape back up to his room.

As soon as he was inside, he threw his pouch of metals onto his desk and plopped face-first onto his bed. He sat there for what had to be a solid fifteen minutes, scrolling through hero news on his phone before he ultimately decided to get started on his homework.

* * *

It took him nearly four hours to get all of his homework done. Between being interrupted for dinner and his constant (self imposed) distractions, things took him a fair bit longer than he'd originally anticipated.

Izuku glanced over at the clock that sat on his desk. _10:14,_ he thought, _I should get to sleep._

He closed his notebook and shut down his laptop after ensuring that his essay had saved properly. He was about to turn off the lamp and crawl into bed when he noticed his belt of metal pouches was still sitting on his desk.

 _Oh, I forgot to give those back to Miss Sakura._ For the last few weeks, she'd acted as his mediator of sorts. He was only allowed to have a certain amount of pewter and tin a day, mostly to keep him from going on another month-long pewter binge. Outside of that, he was occasionally allowed to use the other metals intermittently, as had been the case with "the floaty spoon thing" that the other foster children had pestered him about repeating. Whenever he needed to bring his metals to training with Aizawa, he had to "check them out" from Miss Sakura and then give them right back when he got home.

Except today, when Miss Sakura hadn't been home at the time of his arrival. He'd completely forgotten about them, having been caught up in all of his work. The old woman seemed to have forgotten as well, since she hadn't mentioned it in the (albeit brief) conversation at dinner.

 _I should give them back in the morning,_ he thought, feeling a little bit guilty for not having been more proactive in remembering. He shut off his lamp and walked over to the closet to get changed into his pajamas.

Absentmindedly, he slid open the door, wincing at the scratchy noise it made as the wooden door scraped against the metal guide rails that hadn't been oiled for years. He reached into the closet, sifting through the hangars in search of a clean set of pajamas.

His hand froze a little bit when he got to the tasseled cloak. He hadn't put it on since that night that he got caught by Aizawa, and thus had been sitting in the closet for weeks, completely untouched. He still felt an odd connection to it every time he saw it.

Sure, it held significance in that it was the piece of clothing that he'd been delivered to Midoriya Inko's doorstep wrapped in, but it also had gained more significance to him as of late. Not only had it become a staple to his nightly trips into the mists, but it was also like a material connection to his past.

The other Mistborn had been wearing a cloak identical to this one on the night he'd thrown Izuku off of the roof.

 _It's kinda rediculous to have such an attachment to a piece of clothing,_ Izuku chastised himself lightly. Still, he ran his hand through the cloth, feeling the light and almost air-like texture on his palms. Izuku burned a little of the tin he still had left sitting in his stomach and the feeling became even more profound.

With a heavy breath, one hand still running the cloak's tassels through his fingers, Izuku turned his attention to the window, well, more specifically, what laid _beyond_ the window.

The Mists.

They curled in the night, swirling softly and licking off the window's surface, as if they were beckoning him. Izuku bit at his lip, trying to fight off the temptation. He couldn't count the amount of times in the last month that he'd daydreamed about going out into the mists once again.

Izuku's eyes flickered between the metals sitting on his desk, the cloak in his hand, and the window. _I know I shouldn't, but…_

Before he could second guess himself and make an actual smart decision, Izuku threw the cloak over his shoulders, letting the tassels settle around him. He turned and grabbed the belt of metals and tied it once more around his waist, before locking the door (in case Miss Sakura decided to randomly check in) and stormed across the room, carefully pulling the window open.

As soon as the glassy barrier was gone, mist flooded into Izuku's room, settling to the floor where it dissipated in the heat. Izuku took a deep, heavy breath, letting as much of the moisture-filled air fill his lungs as he possibly could. He quickly took pinches of each metal from the pouches at his waist and washed them down with water, reveling at having the largest reserves he'd felt in over a month.

Izuku burned pewter, tin, iron, and steel simultaneously. The world sprang back to life around him as tin enhanced his senses, sharpening every aspect of how he perceived the world. Pewter dissipated his tiredness from the day's training and gave more presence to his body as he became more and more acutely aware of every muscle. Iron and steel caused bright blue lines to extend from his abdomen to various sources of metal around the room, from the nails in the floorboards to the metal in the All Might figurine on his desk.

Izuku smiled as he stepped up onto the windowsill and out into the night, shutting the window softly behind him.

 _I can't be too long,_ he told himself, _I've still got school tomorrow., and besides I don't want to fall into the habit of not sleeping again._

He pushed off of the ledge with the help of steel, propelling him to the rooftop opposite.

 _It feels good to be back,_ he thought as he landed on the ledge.

The first place Izuku headed to was Dagobah beach. He just wanted to spend some time out in the mists, maybe a little bit of building hopping while he was at it. The last thing he wanted was to get himself involved in yet another villain attack or drug deal and have an _actual_ vigilantism charge on his hands. That would be awfully hard to explain to Aizawa.

So, he stuck to the rooftops, using the natural cover that the mists granted to keep himself hidden. It was still relatively early in the night, so the streets were a bit busier than he was used to when he went out. Between the cars still on the road and groups of people headed home after late nights at the bar, sticking to the rooftops was a necessity if he wanted to avoid being seen.

Pewter helped him keep his balance as he hopped from building to building, though his shoes didn't particularly appreciate the wear-and-tear. It was even early enough that he still needed to be careful and steer clear of buildings with patios on the roof, as there could still be people out for a smoke or something of the sort.

Despite all that, he felt _good_. Maybe it was because of the higher quantity of pewter that he was burning, maybe it was because of how he felt while out in the mists, probably both, but the point stood that he didn't want to ever leave.

Pewter gave him the boost his body needed to keep running and steel was the tool he needed to cross large gaps. He fumbled a few times, it had been a while since he'd gone steel-jumping, afterall, but the level of ease that he felt was unparalleled.

Eventually, about halfway to Dagobah, Izuku slowed his pace and came to a stop on an abandoned rooftop. Pewter may help prevent his body from tiring, but he was still human. Izuku made his way to the corner of the building and sat down, letting his feet dangle off the ledge.

 _Good thing I'm not afraid of heights,_ Izuku thought, looking down. He was near the middle of town now, so the buildings were getting closer and closer to skyscraper level as compared to the residential and rural-urban areas that he usually ran through where the rooftops were generally flat and only a couple of stories tall. _I've got to be at least ten stories up, right now._

He wasn't frightened, he could easily catch himself with iron or steel if he fell. In fact, sitting on the edge of such a tall building like this, looking at the black specs that he recognized as people walking on the streets below was relaxing, in a way. Any normal person wouldn't be able to see that far down, but flaring tin made it easy for him, and there was no way anybody would be able to see him up here.

Izuku put his hand out in front of him, inspecting the mist as is licked off of his skin like it always did when he was burning metals. He ran his other hand through the tassels of his cloak, most of which dangled over the edge of the building alongside his feet.

 _Cling!_

Izuku jumped so hard at the sudden noise that he nearly lost his balance. If he hadn't been flaring tin, he doubted he'd have been even able to hear it, but thanks to the metal, it had been as clear to him as day. He knew exactly what it was, too.

It was the sound of something small and metal colliding with concrete.

Izuku spang to his feet, spinning around and searching for the source of the noise. All he saw was the swirling of the mists.

"Hello?" Izuku prompted, stepping away from the ledge for safety's sake. He kept scanning the rooftop. "Is anyone there? Anybod-"

He nearly missed it with all the blue lines that were already filling his vision, connecting him to all the different pieces of metal around the area and in the building below him. He almost missed a lone blue line in the corner of his vision, getting brighter as whatever it was connected to got closer.

 _Shit!_ Izuku dove to the side just as something whizzed through the air where his head had been a moment prior. Izuku looked towards the object, which was now sailing through the air towards the street below, before looking back towards where it had come from.

Izuku's heart sank from what could either be dread, shock, or anticipation as a figure landed on the rooftop opposite of Izuku.

A man stood there, blonde hair messy atop his head, wearing a grey tasseled cloak that faded into the mists. He held a single coin in-between his middle finger and thumb.

The other mistborn.

"How's it going, kid?"

* * *

 _Ending note: for those that may be wondering: no, thats not all I'm going to give for Ochako. There's still a lot in her backstory that is going to take a while to unflof without me just dropping an info bomb on y'all. Get strapped in for the next 5 chapters (at the very least) to see just how our bubbly, happy marshmellow turned out this way._


	13. Chapter 13: Conversation

**Chapter 13: Conversation**

* * *

 _Quick note before the chapter: there is a LONG authors note at the end of the chapter that is very important in terms of clearing a lot of stuff up for this fic, mostly regarding a few things that happen in this chapter. I really highly encourage_ _ **everyone**_ _to read it, since the information pertains to both my readers who HAVE read mistborn, and also my readers who have not. Read the chapter first, of course, but I'd appreciate it if you read the authors note as well._

Additionally, HUGE shoutout to my friend PK, who has made a piece of cover art for this story!

 _That said, enjoy!_

* * *

"How's it going, kid?"

Izuku didn't respond, instead eyeing the man from across the rooftop. Unlike the last time Izuku ran into the other Mistborn, he wasn't covering his face. Previously, the man had obviously kept his hood up to hide his face and identity, but now he wasn't bothering at all. Under his cloak, he wore what seemed to be a dress shirt and vest, accompanied by a tie. It was an...interesting look with how the cloak contrasted with the gentlemanly attire.

What mattered, though, was the man's face. The moment Izuku looked at his unkempt blonde hair and equally blonde goatee, Izuku recognized him as the hardware store clerk from all those weeks ago who sold him his first batch of metals, just as he'd expected. Izuku flared pewter and tin, letting his hand slowly reach down towards his coin pouch as he fell into a defensive stance.

"Who are you?" Izuku called out, starting to creep his way away from the ledge. The man seemed completely unperturbed by Izuku's hostile tone and defensive stance as he ran a hand through his hair.

Thanks to tin, Izuku's sight pierced through the mist enough to notice the many thin, pearly scars that ran along the man's forearms, starting at his wrist and going all the way to just before his elbow. The faint moonlight that shone through the fog glistened off of them, highlighting the marred skin.

As Izuku slowly crept away from the ledge, the other Mistborn walked slowly and nonchalantly, effectively making them circle each other like a slow, tense fencing match. He also completely ignored Izuku's question.

He tried again. "What do you want? Why are you following me?"

"Full of questions…" the man mumbled, stopping. Izuku kept his guard up, keeping track of all the blue lines in the area, because just like last time, the other Mistborn had no lines connecting him to Izuku, as if he had absolutely no metal on his person. The blonde stopped right next to the edge of the building. "If you want your questions answered…"

He didn't complete his sentence because the implication was made clear by the fact that he threw himself over the edge of the building and catapulted himself across the street. _If you want your questions answered, you'll follow me._

Izuku bit his lip and took off at a pewter-powered sprint. "Damn it!"

Izuku didn't hesitate to jump over the ledge, pushing hard off of one of the multiple lines that he could only assume were rebar in the building's concrete. Izuku felt a force run through his body as the building resisted his push, launching him away. A quick look down showed the street lamps move under him in a blur.

Izuku landed on the roof of the opposite building with a huff, pewter dampening the shock to his legs. Izuku used the momentum from the jump to increase his speed and continue his pursuit. Sure enough, the other Mistborn was on the other side of the building by the time Izuku landed, nearing the ledge.

The next few minutes played out almost exactly like how they had the first time Izuku chased the other Mistborn on that night a few weeks ago: the other man kept running, sometimes jumping across gaps with just pewter, sometimes needing a boost from steel at which point he'd drop a coin, all while Izuku continued in hot pursuit, pewter flaring constantly in his stomach to keep him going.

There was one thing that was a little different this time, though. As Izuku chased the other man from building to building, where the last time he'd kept the distance between them pretty consistent, now Izuku was losing ground. Before he knew it, he was two buildings behind the man, then three.

 _How is he faster than me? I thought pewter had a hard cap?_

Izuku watched as the man got further and further away, to the point that Izuku was starting to lose hope of catching up. His legs were starting to burn, and although he was able to keep running at full speed, he was going to run out of pewter eventually.

 _Look,_ he told himself, _look at what he's doing. There has to be a way to catch up._

Using steel jumps wasn't exactly the most viable option. While the city had _constant_ sources of metal that he could use to propel himself, not only did they not always line up to let him go in a straight line, but the longer the distance was, the more viable it was to just use pewter instead, as pewter-flared running was still faster than steel jumps thanks to air resistance. Izuku flared tin as he ran, squinting to see get as best of a look as he could at the other mistborn.

 _His stride,_ Izuku realized, _he's got an insanely long stride._ It was like watching someone run with tiny little jumps rather than steps, just long enough that it still looked natural and not like someone skipping across the ground. _What is he doing to make his stride so long?_ A longer stride would explain the extra speed.

Izuku blinked, finding it a little hard to focus on something so far away, even with tin's help. It also didn't help that much that blue lines, while mostly transparent, clouded parts of his vision as they whizzed by him, the metal sources that they were connected to being left behind as he ran.

Izuku was in the middle of using a steel jump to cross a street-wide gap when it clicked. _Why didn't I think of this before!_

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he kept pewter flared, moving his legs as fast as the metal allowed them to, but he focused his attention on the blue lines around him. Then, he singled out all of the metal sources _behind_ him and pushed. It was a very light push, just barely more than a light shove, not even enough to lift him off the ground.

The amount of steel he was putting into the lines as they passed him was tiny, almost negligible. Yet, all of those tiny, little pushes added up and each gave him a little push back, resisting the movement and rebounding force. All of that was just enough to feel like someone was behind him, giving him a slight push forward as he ran and suddenly, the ground started to pass by faster.

Each step with pewter caused him to be in the air for just a _little_ longer, as all of the little pushes counteracted the pull of the earth just a teeny tiny bit. What resulted was not only a longer stride, but also slower, more powerful steps that drained his energy less quickly.

The difference was slight, barely noticeable, but it allowed him to get that little boost he needed to finally match pace and even start to gain ground on the other Mistborn. As Izuku ran, pushing lightly behind him with steel, what had been barely more than a figure in the distance got bigger and bigger. The gap became four buildings, then three, then two.

 _This technique wouldn't work anywhere but a big city,_ Izuku realized, _Modern infrastructure uses metal_ everywhere, _between the nails in wood and rebar in concrete._

When Izuku was finally on the same building as the man, he yelled, huffing. "Where are you going?"

The man looked back over his shoulder and _smiled_. "I figured we'd make a stop in the city!"

Izuku had been so focused on catching up that he hadn't bothered to think about where he was being taken. They'd been near to the urban areas of Musutafu before, but now, looking ahead, Izuku died a little inside. Not even a kilometer away sat the towering skyscrapers and bright lights of downtown Tokyo.

 _You've got to be kidding me._ Izuku thought, watching as the other Mistborn dropped a coin and launched almost straight up into the air, landing on the rooftop of a building three stories taller than even the one Izuku was on now.

He'd avoided the big areas of the city for a reason. Actually, he'd avoided them for _multiple_ reasons. First off, he only had experience steel-jumping on relatively flat terrain, maybe a one-story height difference every once in a while. Secondly, Tokyo was _bright_. Giant advertising screens and skyscrapers lit up the night sky, so much so that even the Mist shied away from the brighter places. Tokyo was also alive 24/7. The rural and suburban areas Izuku roamed most of the time died down by midnight, most people having gone to sleep, but there was always some level of activity in downtown Tokyo, no matter the hour.

Between the lack of coverage from the mists, the more active nightly population, and the sporadically random building height, Izuku had been hesitant to go even near the place for fear of being seen.

 _I could turn back…_ he thought. He normally just talked out-loud to himself, but he was pushing himself to the limit and talking would use precious oxygen. Izuku looked back up as the other Mistborn jumped yet again onto another building, this one even taller than the last. A quick look over the edge showed that... _holy shit we're high up._

 _I can't turn back, I've got to get answers. At least he doesn't look like he's trying to kill me this time._

Izuku jumped onto yet another roof, steel just barely carrying him all the way to the ledge. Only when he looked up from the ground did he realize that there was only one more building taller than the one he was currently on. They were on top of the second tallest skyscraper in the middle of downtown Tokyo.

"Don't stop burning your pewter unless you want your body to seize up," an oddly-accented voice said from the other end of the building.

"What?"

"If you don't want to die, keep burning pewter," the other mistborn repeated. He was standing on the opposite end of the building, breathing just as heavily as Izuku was. Still, despite his exhaustion, Izuku kept his guard up.

The other Mistborn walked over to the edge of the building, looking down towards the streets below. Izuku didn't remove his eyes from the man, but a quick glance out of the corner of his eye confirmed just how high up they were. He couldn't even see the ground anymore, even with tin's help.

"Who are you?" Izuku eventually asked as the man stepped away from the ledge.

"Let's play a little game." the blonde said cheerfully, turning to Izuku.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Let's spar. Every hit you land on me, I'll answer one of your questions," he smiled, hopping from foot to foot like an over-excited child.

Izuku eyed him. "Why should I? You've tried to kill me."

"What? No I haven't."

"You threw me off of a building," Izuku responded dryly.

"I knew you'd survive."

"You - " Izuku sighed. "Why should I play your game?"

"Because I won't answer your questions otherwise."

The man was playing into Izuku's thirst for information. He knew that Izuku had a lot of questions that he _needed_ answered, so he was going to let him dance in the palm of his hand in exchange for said information.

Izuku cursed himself.

"Fine. The second you try to kill me again I'm leaving, I don't care who you are or what you know," Izuku deadpanned. Then, for some reason, the man laughed, a full, heavy belly-laugh. Then, he came forward at a sprint.

Izuku barely batted away the first punch aimed at his right shoulder. _He's fast!_

Thankfully, pewter put them on an even playing field so it all came down to technique and tactics. Izuku had been working and training under Aizawa for weeks now, most of that time being spent on basic hand-to-hand combat, so he at least had a chance, even if he was far from good.

Right after Izuku batted away the other Mistborn's first punch, a second one came right back, connecting with Izuku's stomach. If it wasn't for pewter, Izuku was sure he'd have lost his dinner at that moment.

The force of the punch threw Izuku across the rooftop, where he skidded across the concrete for a couple of meters as he slid to a stop. _If I'm not careful, I might get thrown off the roof,_ he reminded himself. Flaring pewter to ward off the pain from half of the skin on his arm being scraped off, Izuku got to his feet.

The blonde bounced on the balls of his feet,

 _His attacks are too quick, if I wait for him to come to me, I'm just going to get thrown around like a ragdoll._ Pewter enhanced his reaction speed and physical capabilities, but he wasn't used to someone _else_ having that physical prowess, as well, and as such he'd gotten caught off guard.

Izuku broke into a run towards the Mistborn, deciding that offense was better than defense in a situation like this. As Izuku drew closer, the man smiled _again._ Izuku feinted a punch with his right hand, and as the man moved to block, Izuku rolled into the punch, allowing his right hand to get blocked in exchange for wrapping his right leg around the other man's left.

Izuku flared pewter and pulled back, attempting to make him lose his balance so that he could follow up with a punch of his own. Except, instead of the leg buckling like Izuku had anticipated, he himself was pulled off balance as his entire world lurched forward and the Mistborn's leg was ripped away from Izuku's own, violently.

"Come on, use more metals than just pewter," the blonde laughed, "be a little more creative. I escaped that hold by pulling myself away with iron!"

 _Is he...bragging?_ Izuku shook his head, _Nevermind that, why is he giving me advice?_

"Why are you giving me advice?" Izuku called back.

The blonde shook his head. "No questions until you land a hit on me!"

 _You're insufferable,_ Izuku thought, _use more metals? I can use more metals._

Izuku flared pewter, tin, and steel, watching as the world came alive around him and the blue lines thickened. He broke into a sprint, noting where all the metal sources around him were; most were below him, but there were a few lining the edge of the only skyscraper next to where they were fighting.

As Izuku closed in, the man broke back into a sprint, meeting Izuku head on, a massive smile plastered on his face. He lunged with his right hand, aiming in the same way that he had before. Izuku, predicting the same strategy, ducked the hit, bending over backwards far further than his muscles would normally allow. Just like previously, the other Mistborn aimed for a follow-up punch with his other hand, and just before it could connect, Izuku _pushed_ off of the ground with steel. Whatever he pushed against stayed put, so the push launched Izuku himself into the air, where he _vaulted over_ the second strike, sailing over the enemy Mistborn's head.

Izuku brought his leg around as fast as his body could, twisting with the motion. The kick connected with the back of the other man's right shoulder, throwing him to the ground a few meters away. Izuku finished the rotation, landing on his feet soundly, heaving a breath.

To Izuku's astonishment, the man laughed. "Hey, that's what I'm talking about! What's your first question?"  
"What's going on? Why do you have the same Quirk as me?"

The man frowned, pulling himself to his feet. "That's two questions, but I'll let it slide because that was a good kick." He rolled his shoulder, rubbing it with his other hand.

"Well, there's not much that I can say right now other than what you've got isn't what you're calling a 'Quirk'. You're a Mistborn."

 _So I did guess the term right._

"What is a Mistborn?" Izuku prompted.

"It's what you and I are. We may very well be the only ones left, well, outside of that fool, at least," he grimaced before continuing. "There isn't really any good way to explain what a Mistborn _is_. On the surface, it's a person that can burn metals to create an effect, but under the surface, it's so much more than that. Just look around you and you'll feel it in the mists. That comfort you feel, all Mistborn feel that because they're a part of you; you were meant to walk in them. You and I, we're born to walk with the mists, _that's_ what a Mistborn is."

 _That's awfully cryptic,_ Izuku thought, _but does that mean this attachment to the Mists...is part of my Quirk?_

Izuku asked the next thing that came to mind. "Then what are the mists?"  
The other Mistborn clicked his tongue and shook his head. "You'll have to land another hit to get another question!"

Izuku sighed. "Fine, at least let me follow-up on my first question then. I thought that Quirks are unique, how come we both have identical Quirks? How come there's more than one Mistborn?"  
"I told you, Mistborn is not a "Quirk". It is a thing that you are, not a thing that you have. Allomancy functions similarly to these 'Quirks', as something that affects other people's abilities will also affect yours, but it is not a 'Quirk' in the way you are thinking of it. You're not thinking broadly enough."

A frown. "I'm not sure if I'm following. You mentioned that there used to be more Mistborn, if so then why haven't I heard of them before? I'm sure I'd have heard of a Quirk that repeated itself within multiple people, there's no way that stays a secret. What made me one of them and hat do you mean by Allomancy?"

"Allomancy is the term for what we do. 'Allo' as in 'alloy' and 'mancy' as in 'magic'. It's an old, fancy way to say 'metal magic'. As for other Mistborn, well, you wouldn't have heard of them, and that's all I'll say," is all the man replied with. "Now, if you want more answers, you'll need to land another hit on me."

Izuku scowled but fell back into a defensive stance, flaring his tin and keeping an eye on the man's movements, waiting for him to make the first move this time. Izuku didn't have any plan of attack, so he figured being reactionary would be a good change of pace.

The other Mistborn stood on the other side of the rooftop for a while, keeping an eye on Izuku's movements as the latter did the same in return. When it became clear that Izuku had no intention of going on the offensive, the blonde let out an exaggerated sigh and broke started to close the gap with slow, normal-paced steps.

 _That's odd, he's not runn-_ Izuku was torn from his thoughts when a massive force pulled on his right leg, nearly yanking him off his feet. Izuku flared pewter and pulled against the invisible force that seemed to be tied to his foot, only to be met with minimal success. Izuku's gaze flashed to the other Mistborn's face, at which point he saw that he'd stopped moving, the ever-present smile on his lips.

 _What's -_ Izuku hopped backwards, trying to release his leg, _oh, that's what this is, huh?_ His mind flashed back to when he'd tripped Bakugo by yanking on the metal aglet of the boy's school uniform shoes. Izuku looked down at his foot, still pulling against the force with pewter, to see that his own aglets were suspended in the air, trying to detach themselves from his foot and fly towards his opponent.

 _If you're going to use iron on me like that…_ Izuku shifted his weight onto the heel of his only grounded foot, leaning as far back from the pull as possible. _I'll use it against you!_

Izuku was just about to jump into the air and let himself be pulled towards the other Mistborn when the force on his leg suddenly changed direction, and when one moment he'd been hardly balancing himself by leaning backwards, now his leg shot in the complete opposite direction.

"Gah!" Izuku yelped as the concrete rushed towards his face. The only thing that saved him from smashing his nose into the concrete was a frantic, panicked push against any and all sources of metal below him.

He didn't eat concrete, that much was certain, but the pain that shot through his back when he landed after throwing himself a few meters into the air didn't exactly feel much better.

"You should never have metal on you when you're fighting another Mistborn!" the man yelled. Izuku couldn't see him, all he could see was the dark, starry sky above him, but tin gave him enough information to know that the man wasn't moving around, at least.

"I thought you said you and I are the only Mistborn around," Izuku groaned, flaring pewter as he pushed himself onto his feet. "Why would I need to forsake wearing metal if you're the only one that's going to use it against me?"

Izuku wasn't quite able to read his expression, between the mists and the black spots peppering his vision, but he _thought_ he saw...a scowl? _Something other than a creepy, slightly insane-looking smile? That's new._

"I suppose that's a valid point," he finally said, looking up, "It's more of a force of habit. Still, if you're going to want to land a hit on me, every piece of metal on you is just another disadvantage!"

"How are you hiding the coins in your cloak?" Izuku figured that he might be able to get a few free answers if he was able to get the other man sufficiently distracted. To Izuku's mild surprise, it worked, at least this time.

"Aluminum lined pockets. Aluminum is immune to and blocks any allomantic pulses." A pause and a frown. "Hey, that's cheating! I hit you, not the other way around!"

Izuku shrugged, smiling slyly. "Just playing the game," he said, returning his focus to the fight. Removing all of the metal on him at the moment wouldn't exactly be plausible, but, like the man said, every extra piece gone was one less disadvantage. As such, Izuku kicked off his shoes, flinching as his bare feet touched the cold, slightly wet concrete.

 _I've still got other metal on me, like the zipper on my jeans, but this is better than nothing._

By now, Izuku had realized that the other Mistborn was completely just toying with him. Whoever this person was, their skill level and experience with allomancy was far, far higher than Izuku's own, and so, if the other man had wanted to just beat Izuku into the ground and leave, he could've done that within the span of a few seconds. He had some sort of goal, and Izuku needed to figure out what it was.

Izuku made the first move this time, closing the gap on pewter-enhanced legs, keeping an eye out for any signs of movement from his opponent. Just as Izuku was about to lunge for a punch, he noticed the man's right foot slide a little on the ground, as if he were putting more weight onto it, waiting for the right moment to strike. Instead of going through with his original plan, Izuku bailed, jumping up and over his opponent's head with a little help from steel. Izuku soared what had to be a couple of meters into the air before landing behind his opponent.

"Getting better, I see," the man teased. Izuku didn't respond, as he was focused on figuring out his next move. His eyes scanned the rooftop for anything that he could use to his advantage, his eyes eventually falling on a set of lines connecting him to the shoes he'd taken off a moment ago.

 _Turn a disadvantage into an advantage._ Izuku broke into a sprint directly at his opponent. He saw the man tense up and fall into a defensive stance, but Izuku's focus wasn't on that at the moment. The shoes were positioned in such a way that, even with iron and steel to help point out their location via the blue lines, the man would be unable to see them, his back completely turned to the objects.

So, just as Izuku was about to get in fighting range, he reached out with iron and _yanked_ on the shoes as hard as he could. Being lighter than Izuku himself, the shoes flew from the ground towards him. The angle wasn't right, so one of the shoes completely flew under his opponent's right arm, but the other one connected with the middle of the man's back. The momentary distraction gave a break in his opponent's defense, an opening that Izuku utilized to throw a punch as hard as he could into the man's gut.

It connected and he grunted as the air was forced from his lungs just before he was knocked a few feet back. He didn't lose his footing, but it was a solid hit, which was what mattered.

"What are the mists and where did they come from?" Izuku repeated his question from earlier immediately.

"That's…" the man said, "a layered question. As for the first part, the mists are the mists. Everything you think you know about what they are is probably true, but there's also another thing: the mists give us power. Not directly, but they hide you and they protect you. On the note of where they came from...that's a much more complicated question."

"I landed a hit on you, I think I deserve an answer." Izuku raised an eyebrow. The blonde met his gaze, and a moment later, he nodded.

"I like the spunk," he took a deep breath, "well, a lot of it is...old history. History that you don't really need to know, and in fact knowing it may do more harm than good. I'll tell you this, though: the mists aren't from here," he gestured all around him, "but where they came from doesn't matter, what matters is that they're here now."

"What brought them here?" Izuku prompted.

"You did. Just as you feel yourself being drawn to the mists, the mists are drawn to you. It's a symbiotic relationship, in a way."

"Wait," Izuku interrupted, "you mean to tell me that these mists came from some unknown place because of _me?_ That doesn't even make any sense!"  
"Sure it does," the man said, "have you ever wondered why birds can migrate the way they do? How do they have the ability to remember flight paths perfectly, despite the fact that their brains don't have that long of a memory? It's because they're _drawn to_ those places. They form a connection to it and just let their wings do the rest of the work. Wherever there are Mistborn, there will always be the mist, and wherever there is the mist, Mistborn will appear."  
A frown. "That's not a very...objective or scientific answer."

"Not everything has to be," he retorted, "Not everything in the world makes sense, which means there's always something to chase. There's always another secret." The other Mistborn paused and reached into his cloak, pulling out what Izuku could only assume was a pocket watch.

"Okay, kid, I've got somewhere to be. Let's continue our game next time." He spun around on one foot, storming towards the edge of the building.

"Wait!" Izuku called out. The man paused and turned back around, "Let me ask one more question."

"Shoot."

Izuku asked the question that had been sitting in the back of his mind ever since he first met the other Mistborn. "Who are you and what's your goal here?"

The man's shoulders slumped forward, and the manic smile shifted to what Izuku could only describe as a somber one. "That's...a loaded question, Kell." The instant he said the last word of the sentence, he winced, as if he'd let slip something he didn't exactly mean to.

 _Kell?_ Izuku shook away the thought of questioning the odd term, deciding it wouldn't be a good idea to interrupt.

What came next was possibly one of the most cryptic, confusing explanations that Izuku had heard that night, and that was saying something.

"There's…a lot headed your way. I'm trying to handle it so that you can focus on your own life, but I'm not sure if it will come back to you anyway, so I'm trying to get you ready. There's a lot to learn and I'm a notoriously bad teacher, but there's some stuff you just can't learn at a hero school, stuff you've gotta learn from another Mistborn. I guess that's what my goal is."

 _Trying to kill me is certainly a...weird way to teach._ Izuku thought, but looking back, it had worked in its own ways. Being forced into danger made you think on the fly, which is where stuff like utilizing multiple metals at once or burning steel to run faster came from. _What does he mean by 'a lot headed your way', though?_

The man continued. "As for who I am, well, I've had a few names in the past. I would prefer not to tell because it's really complicated, old, and particularly dangerous, but I'll let you know this: I'm the one that brought you here. You're from the same place as the mists, kid, but I made a promise to some people and that ended up with me dropping you off here."

"Wait," Izuku said, heart racing, "wait wait wait wait. That can't be right. First off, you don't look a day older than thirty, you can't have been the one that dropped me here, you'd be so much older! Plus, while it's believable that I'm from the same place as the mists - if what you've said so far is to be believed, that is - then where am I actually from? What happened that led to you bringing me here? What is -"

"You're rambling, kid." Izuku snapped his mouth shut, though he had about fifty more questions ready, at the tip of his tongue. The man sighed. "It's all true, whether you believe me or not is up to you. Whatever you decide, I want you to promise me something: don't get caught up in your past. Where you and the mists came from don't matter, that all happened years ago. What matters is that you're here now. Focus on yourself, not the past. Go out and become a hero, or whatever it is you want to do and don't let yourself get tied down chasing a past that you didn't know about until now. This is _your_ story, not mine."

Izuku gulped. Tonight had been an information overload, in a way, and he was having trouble believing and processing it all. Izuku opened his mouth to talk more, but for once, he found himself at a loss for words as the man turned towards the edge of the roof, his mistcloak caught by the breeze. Just before he jumped, he turned his head.

"The name's Kelsier," he said, "and I made a promise to a couple of people that I'd keep an eye on you. I've done a pretty bad job of it so far, but I'll try to be better. I'll let you know next time I want to talk. Until then," Kelsier smiled, " _Survive._ "

With that, Kelsier jumped off the edge of the skyscraper towards the streets below, leaving Izuku completely speechless, lost in his thoughts on the roof.

* * *

 _Ending note: I know that this chapter is shorter in relativity to some, but I felt like this interaction really deserved its own chapter because of how much I've built up this subplot for the, well, entire fic up to this point. That being said, I have a few_ _ **very**_ _important notes to make:_

 _This is still a bnha story, this is not supposed to be a "mistborn x bnha" crossover. At worst I want this to be an AU inspired heavily on Mistborn's world and one character in common. My goal from the start with this fic has been to tell a story that is accessible to any bnha fan, whether they've read the mistborn series or not. I've made it my goal while writing every single chapter that someone who has no experience with the book series can pick up this fic and enjoy it, but those that HAVE read the original series can pick up on extra details and "easter eggs" to enhance their reading experience. This chapter is tiptoeing that line so I want to make some things clear._

 _This chapter has served as the bridge to finally connect the world of Scandrial to bnha's. I made it_ very _clear through Kelsier's dialogue that Izuku should focus on himself and not where the Mists/Powers came from. Those lines were not only directed from Kelsier to Izuku, but also from me to you, the reader. I will not be delving deeply into that connection, as it is **not important to the story** **I am telling**_ **,** _but it is one of those "easter eggs" I talked about. To those that have read Mistborn, I'm sure you can guess exactly what's going on here: Izuku is from Scandrial originally, as I have hinted at (and will hint at more particularly later) Izuku has a connection to a_ particular _couple of people from there who asked Kelsier to protect/keep an eye on Izuku, and as the note says in chapter 1 :get him away from that horrible place." It's not a hard logical jump. Past that, obviously something happened back at Scandrial that caused the Mists (Preservation) to migrate, where they were attracted to Izuku. As much as I would like to come out and say these things, it's really difficult to say "Izuku is technically an alien brought here by a world hopping person and the Mists are the body of a dead god" and keep things not only sensical, but also follow a storytelling structure that isn't something like Darling in the Franxx with its batshit crazy "twist". Besides, telling those 'easter eggs" outright would completely and utterly destroy the goal of accessibility I've gone for for this fic, so I've resolved to just abstain from it completely. It's still there, it's an "easter egg", but if I came outright and said it, it would confuse the hell out of my readers that have not read Mistborn, which is something I will not do. As Kelsier said, This is Izuku's story, not his (and not scandrial's). This will remain like this for the foreseeable future, outside of possibly the very very very end (yes, I have planned out this entire fic from where we are now to my planned ending point, and no, it's not anywhere close yet.)_

 _Kelsier is not a main player in this story. He serves as a mentor/overseer in a way, as well as a connection to Izuku's past. He will see limited screen time, as most of this is focused on the things that I can't have bnha's characters explain or reasonably teach Izuku about his powers. He will also be a source of a few more hints to Izuku's origin that I haven't fully unveiled yet, but that's very minimal and will not be nearly the level of "info bomb" as this chapter has been. So: Non mistborn readers: do not fret, things won't get any more towards that line of 'crossover' than this chapter. To the Mistborn readers out there: You will get more Kelsier, it will just be a little bit less frequent than you may be hoping._

 _Finally, to my non-mistborn readers. **If you're confused, PLEASE let me know and I will revise this chapter as many times as I need to in order to make things clear and accessible.** It's sometimes hard to tell when you glaze over a detail or make something too ambiguous to somebody that does not know the both sides of the content. My goal with this chapter has been to make Kelsier's answers to Izuku's questions JUST telling enough that they can give the reader and Izuku the most important, story-relevant information (maybe not completely sensical, yet) while also hinting to the bigger picture and "easter eggs" for the Mistborn readers out there. Think of Izuku as the reader who has never read Mistborn before: if you can put yourself in Izuku's shoes where you get the gist, but not some of the details or more ambiguous parts (should be about 50% or more of the information given) then that's the right spot to be in. If you put yourself into Izuku's shoes and practically none of it, please let me know, I will fine tune this chapter many times in all likelihood to keep things from straying too far. To you, Kelsier should seem like a mysterious mentor/overseer, NOT a shoehorned crossover character like one of those old cringy 2010 fanfictions where Goku is in everything for some reason._

 _OHHHKAY. That's it for my massive, almost 1k word lond authors note. I hope everyone sat through it, because it has a lot of very important info in it. If you skipped it, it won't detract from the story experience, of course, I'd never do that, but it does clear some things up that I've already gotten some comments about and foresaw some other comments going forward. Thank you all, I'll see you in the next one._


	14. Chapter 14: Break Day

**Chapter 14: Break Day**

* * *

"Hey, Aizawa-sensei?" Izuku said, pulling himself up from the mat. "Could we try sparring with Quirks?"

"Not yet," the gruffier man replied, "I'll let you know when you're ready to start working with your Quirk."

 _I'll let you know when,_ Izuku thought. _there's that same phrase again…_

It had only been a few days since his fight with Kelsier (he was relieved that he finally had something to call the man in his head other than 'the other mistborn'), and the more he thought back on that night, the more questions he had, but oddly, he felt like he'd gotten closure on a lot of things as well. It was certainly an odd limbo to be in, at least. He knew the basics of the origin of his Quirk, even if he didn't really understand it, and he got some sort of confirmation that he was connected in some way to the Mists.

After giving himself multiple headaches trying to make out what Kelsier had told him, Izuku decided to take the man's advice to heart. He wasn't going to linger too much on the specifics, instead he was just going to take things at face value and focus on himself. Sure, there was probably more to the origin of his Quirk and how it played into some bigger picture, but that didn't matter in the now. All that mattered as of that moment was taking what he was told, accepting it, and using that knowledge to help get closer to his goals.

Which, of course, brought him back to his training sessions with Aizawa and the very noticeable lack of focus on his Quirk. They were _still_ just going strength training and hand to hand combat (which he was getting better at). It was becoming harder and harder to see the point with the knowledge that pewter just boosted him up to the same level anyways. As for the sparring, he had a feeling that hand-to-hand practice with his Quirk would be something more akin to his fight with Kelsier, and since then he had so many ideas running through his head on different ways to apply different metals in different scenarios.

"Nevermind," Izuku finally said, a little miffed.

Aizawa readied his capture bands. "We'll do a couple more and then break for the day."

Even if the physical fitness training wasn't as useful to him, considering his access to pewter, the sparring sessions actually were. In the last few days, they'd branched out from the basics to different close combat situations such as an elevation difference of uneven ground. Today, it was fighting against someone with a restrictive weapon.

The grey bands around Aizawa's neck weren't just for show, as it turns out. The man was an absolute master of manipulating the bands in the most unpredictable ways at both close and medium range. If Izuku wasn't careful and looking out very specifically for the movements of the bands during his approach, he'd just be restrained before he could even get close enough to touch his mentor, although things didn't get much better after he closed in, either. Once he got close, not only did he have to worry about thinking about his footing and attack strategies, but he also had to keep an eye on his opponent's movements, else he be wrapped up by the bands again.

Izuku shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He still hadn't had time to catch up on sleep from the night that he'd lost by going out into the mists, and it was catching up to him, both physically _and_ mentally.

 _Get close quick, don't let him have time to get ready or think of a counter plan._ Izuku told himself, dashing in and keeping an eye on Aizawa's hands around the capture bands. The moment they tensed, Izuku made to dive to the side, barely getting out of the way before the grey bands flung through the air. Izuku struggled to regain his footing, his movements feeling sluggish.

Before he could regain his balance, a second set of capture mands wrapped themselves around Izuku's shin and yanked, pulling his entire right leg out from under him and causing him to slam back-first onto the mat. Izuku let out a soft groan.

 _If I had pewter, I wouldn't have lost my balance and I could have pulled on him instead of the other way around when he grabbed me,_ Izuku thought sourly.

Izuku laid on the mat for a moment, staring at the lights on the ceiling above. A couple of heartbeats later, Aizawa stepped into his field of view, looking down at him.

"You look tired," he deadpanned.

"I haven't been sleeping well." It wasn't a lie, he'd struggled to get any good sleep for a few days, but that was just because he was behind on his sleep schedule. That single night of using pewter to keep him up had really taken its toll on him and he hadn't had the time to catch up on the hours he was missing, between his training, homework, and community service.

"We're going to break for today," Aizawa finally said. "And take Friday off. Spend some time at home or something, you need a break."

 _I do need a break_ , Izuku thought. What came out of his mouth wasn't quite what he was thinking. "It's okay, I don't want to miss any training sessions, the more we train the more prepared I'll be for Yuuei."

Aizawa scowled. "You're taking a break on Friday because you look like you got hit by a bus and the bags under your eyes are darker than mine. If you try to show up, I will not be here."

Izuku tried to push himself to his feet, but stopped when a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He instinctively reached for pewter, forgetting that his reserves were empty.

"Okay, yeah," Izuku said, "maybe I need a break."

Aizawa just grunted and walked away, calling over his shoulder. "Don't push yourself too much, kid."

* * *

The dim light in Momo's kitchen flickered as she did the dishes. They didn't have a dishwasher, so it was all by hand, but that didn't matter to her all that much. Most of the time, doing the dishes provided a good mindless activity to focus on.

Her birthday was on Friday. She hadn't told anyone yet and she had no intention of doing so, either. Her mother was still in recovery and would be for another two months, possibly longer if her situation didn't improve. Past that, she didn't really have anyone to spend the time with, anyways.

The last time she'd properly celebrated her birthday was when she was eight, just before her parents split up. Every year after that fell into one of three categories: either she "celebrated" her birthday with her father who always made it seem like it was a chore, her mother remembered but didn't have the money to do anything, or they completely forgot and/or ignored it altogether. It was to the point that her birthday just felt like any other day.

She intended to keep it that way. _What's the point? It's not really anything all that special, anyways,_ she thought.

The last thing she wanted was to be seen as a burden to anybody.

* * *

After her declaration that she was going to go to Yuuei, Ochako practically shut herself in her room for a few days. Her mother called for her multiple times, trying to coax her out of her self-imposed prison, but had stopped after it became clear that she wasn't going to be leaving.

Her outburst and choice of school had been almost exclusively the product of all her pent up emotions, to the point that when she calmed down, she found herself questioning whether that's actually where she wanted to go.

 _Do I want to become a hero?_ The question reverberated around her head, echoing constantly. Her (albeit minimal) interactions with the house staff didn't help to ease her mind, either. The page of her chemistry textbook that she'd opened up before being called down to dinner a few days ago still sat open on her test, completely untouched.

Still, despite her unease, the declaration hadn't come out of nowhere. Sure, part of it may have been spite and part of it may have been her desire to get out of the estate for high school, but it felt like something deep inside her had made that final choice for her.

Ochako sighed, flopping onto her bed, clutching onto her hug-pillow. Her gaze settled on the picture frame that sat on her night-stand. It was just a small picture of her when she was a kid, holding hands with her dad. She silently reached over and picked up the frame, holding the picture out in front of her.

"What should I do, papa?" she mumbled, pulling the frame up against her chest and hugging it. It wasn't long before she found herself fading into unconsciousness.

* * *

 _Ochako found herself in the courtroom again. She didn't quite completely understand a lot that went on, and there wasn't a lot that she really understood outside of what her parents had told her._

" _Mommy and daddy are going to be splitting up," her father had told her. "I don't want to get you caught in the middle and I don't want you to have to choose, but things might go as well as I'm expecting. I need you to be strong, okay?"_

" _Okay, papa!" she'd said innocently. The interaction had been just before he left to go to the first day of divoce proceedings. That was five months ago. In that time, she'd watched her father go from a cheerful, happy man who always wore a smile to someone else almost entirely. He still acted the same way around her, which she was thankful for, but she saw that the divorce was really taking a toll on him. He drank alcohol more often than he used to, he always had bags under his eyes, and he didn't have as much time to hang around and play with her._

 _Her mother was almost completely out of the picture. After declaring that she wanted a divorce, she'd packed her things and left, and Ochako had hardly seen her since. She called every once in a while, but she never actually visited. She'd asked once or twice if Ochako could come stay with her for a weekend, but her father was firm that she needed to stay around where she was going to school._

 _As time went on, she grew more and more distant from her mother, which hurt. It wasn't just that she was growing further and further apart from her mother, who she'd looked up to and loved for so much of her life, but also the fact that the woman didn't even seem to be trying to keep that connection._

 _And, if the little information Ochako had been fed about the many times in the courthouse, her mother was also trying to get as much out of the split as possible, including custody, which was part of the reason that her father was becoming so stressed._

 _As time went on, she came to blame her mother more and more, just as the world became more and more sad, little by little._

" _I'm sorry, honey, but today may be the last day of court, and the Judge wanted you to give your opinion. I want you to be brave, okay?" her father said as they walked into the courtroom. Ochako gulped and nodded, unfurling the front of her dress. It was the first time she'd been in the courtroom, so she wasn't quite sure what to expect._

 _As they walked down the main aisle towards the floor of the room, she noticed that her mother was already there, alongside her lawyer. Somehow, her mother had the money to afford a lawyer._

" _With all parties present, the court is now in session." the man at the big podium - the Judge, Ochako presumed - spoke. Even as he started listing out everything that had already been decided and what was on the agenda for today, Ochako found her eyes drifting over to the stand that her mother was standing behind._

 _The woman looked completely different from how she'd looked just a few months ago. Her face was caked in makeup, to the point that it was almost unrecognizable, and the dress she was wearing just screamed_ expensive _. That second half was compounded by the fact that at her side was a designer purse, one that couldn't have cost any less than a few thousand dollars._

 _As Ochako looked at her mother, she saw an entirely different person from the person that she thought she knew. It was almost like looking at a complete stranger._

" _The only thing left to settle is the custody of Miss Uraraka Ochako, here. As I'm sure the rest of the court is aware, the topic of custody has been anything but productive in the five months of this proceeding. Both parties are pushing for full custody, and so we have decided to take Miss Uraraka Ochako's personal opinion into consideration."_

 _Ochako felt her father's grip on her hand tighten. Ochako shot another glance towards her mother, who was now looking in her direction. Ochako twiddled her thumbs._

" _Miss Uraraka Ochako, would you please come to the front?" Ochako peeked out from behind the stand and tentatively made her way to the middle of the floor. There was a small, wooden podium right next to where the Judge was seated, which she walked up behind, using the provided stool to make her actually visible._

" _We usually prefer not to get children involved in custody battles," the Judge started. "Especially when one of the parties is so opposed to it, which your father was. So, it is with a heavy heart that I must ask you to make a decision. Both your mother and father are pushing for full custody, and neither are willing to fold, so we ask you to make a choice on which parent you are most comfortable living with. How much you see both your father and mother respectively depends on your answer."_

 _Ochako gulped, nodding, She knew the basics of what custody meant, not only had her father given her a rundown, but she also wasn't stupid. She might be young, but she was eight!_

 _As Ochako looked around the room, she took in the scene before her. Her father stood on one side of the open space, looking at her with almost pleading eyes. The bags under them were darker than they'd been for a long time, and when she looked at him, her heart panged._

 _She loved this man. He was her father and her best friend, and had never turned against or betrayed her. No matter what, he stayed by her side and put on a heroic smile for her, even when she could tell that he had to force it._

 _When she looked at her father, she trusted him._

 _On the other side of the room stood her mother, or at least, someone who wore her mother's face. The woman that stood on the other side of the room right now, surrounded by a lawyer and a man Ochako didn't recognize, was not the mother she remembered. This woman wasn't the sweet, loving woman who tucked Ochako into bed every night, nor was she the person who bought Ochako her first doll._

 _When she looked at her mother, she felt betrayed. She'd trusted her, and her mother had taken that trust and stomped all over it._

 _When Ochako looked into her mother's eyes and was only met with a blank, almost empty-feeling stare, her decision was made._

" _I…" Ochako stammered, clutching onto the sides of the podium and accidentally activating her quirk on it, "I want to live with papa."_

 _The atmosphere in the courtroom seemed to freeze in place. Ochako didn't even look across at her mother and she wasn't sure what she would have seen if she had. When she met her father's eyes, he was crying._

" _I see…" the Judge said, "then the verdict and finalization of custody and this divorce is the following: by virtue of the nature of the mother's reported financial income over the past five months, in combination with the father's current economic struggle, the mother is more fit to raise a child for the time being. Additionally, based on the father's reported psychological analyses from a psychologist, he is emotionally distraught, which also makes it difficult to properly raise a child. Up until today, I was planning on giving full custody to the mother."_

 _Ochako's heart sunk._

" _However," the Judge continued, "the child's opinion cannot be ignored. So, by the power bestowed upon me by this court, I hereby declare that custody shall be split. The father will have weekdays, and the mother will have weekends and long breaks. Any further inquiries will be handled by the office of divorce affairs, and this court is officially adjourned."_

Ochako woke in a cold sweat. In her sleep, she'd kicked all the blankets off the bed, and the hug pillow wasn't faring much better. To her relief, the picture of her and her father hadn't been damaged in her mid-dream struggling.

She hadn't dreamed of that last day in the courtroom for a long time. It was a recurring dream she had, and every time it came up, she ended up making a mess that she didn't have the energy to clean up, as well as being unable to fall back asleep. Ochako shook her head to clear it, still a bit rattled. Sure, the actual contents of the dream were not that scary or anything like that, but it still never failed to jostle her emotionally. To her, that day was one of the turning points of her life, so to speak.

Ochako sat up and took a look at the clock.

 _Five thirty,_ Ochako read, _I'm not gonna get back to sleep, so I may as well be productive._

She got up from her bed after carefully re-placing the picture frame on her nightstand and walked over to her desk, turning on her lamp before crashing into the seat and staring at the words and pictures of her chemistry textbook.

* * *

For the first time in over a month, Izuku wasn't sure what he was going to do after school. Surprisingly, he wasn't at all behind on his homework, he had nothing to do at home, and Aizawa had "given" him the day off (if forcing him counted), so he was kinda lost on how he'd spend his afternoon.

Izuku kicked a rock to the side of the sidewalk absentmindedly.

"What did that rock ever do to you?" a female voice called. Izuku looked over his shoulder to see Yaoyorozu approaching. He let himself smile a little bit.

"It murdered my family," he said dryly, not letting a hint of emotion pass his face. Yaoyorozu paused for a moment, taken aback. Before the conversation could get awkward, Izuku continued. "I can make dead family jokes because my mom died when I was four."

Yaoyorozu stared at him for a split second, before breaking into a smile and falling into step with him. "Your sense of humor is darker than I thought."

Izuku shrugged. "I don't make jokes often, so they tend to be pretty hit or miss."

"Hmm," Yaoyorozu hummed, "We'll call that one a near miss."

They made the rest of the trek to school in relative silence, which was unusual. Typically, Yaoyorozu carried most of the conversation, since he still didn't have the best conversational skills and found it much better to be talked _to_ , but today she was unusually quiet.

"Is there something wrong?" Izuku said, opening the school's main door, "You aren't talking much."

When Izuku spoke, it seemed to have pulled Yaoyorozu from a trance, almost like her mind had been completely elsewhere and he'd just called her back to earth. "Oh, yeah, it's nothing. Just a bit tired is all, nothing you need to worry about."

"Okay," Izuku said, taking off his shoes and putting on the school issued pair. He frequently forgot to change his shoes before leaving for the day, which was the reason that he was on his fourth pair this term. He hadn't mentioned to the school that the _reason_ he was on his fourth pair was that he kept either destroying them on his old nightly runs into the Mists, or just forgot them on a random rooftop altogether.

 _I wonder if someone's ever found my shoes on the corner of a building and thought someone had jumped,_ Izuku wondered, tying the laces and placing his personal pair of shoes into the locker. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

By the time he'd gotten his shoes changed, Yaoyorozu was already standing by the edge of the lockers, waiting for him. He joined her as they walked to class, and Yaoyorozu seemed to be talking a little more than their walk to school, although it wasn't clear if it was because she was forcing herself to or not.

 _There's something bothering her,_ Izuku realized. Considering how close and good of a friend to him she'd been over the last few months, he felt like he owed it to her to either uncover what it was or solve the problem. _If she doesn't want me to know anything's wrong, is it right to pry?_

Izuku and Yaoyorozu parted ways, headed to their respective classes.

* * *

Izuku fidgeted with one of Kelsier's coins throughout the entirety of his morning. He didn't really need to pay attention in class, he hadn't needed to for months, and so distracting or entertaining himself was the best way to keep from overthinking things that didn't really need to be overthought, like why Yaoyorozu had been so distant that morning. He couldn't help but think, _Was it something I did?_

Shaking the worry, he absentmindedly ran his thumb over the odd characters on the carbon-scored metal, carefully burning a little bit of his small reserve of tin to feel the individual characters. For the sake of his own sanity, he decided that he would _not_ worry himself with what the older Mistborn was up to, for the time being at least.

When the teacher released class for lunch, Izuku tried to leave the room as quickly as possible. He'd learned the hard way that sticking around was just asking for someone (primarily Bakugo) to torment him.

"Midoriya?" a male voice called. Izuku froze in the doorway and turned around, slipping Kelsier's coin into his pocket. At the front of the room, his teacher was gathering his things.

"Midoriya, could you follow me to the teacher's office? It'll be quick, I promise."

Izuku gulped but nodded, following the taller man out of the room. Izuku followed his teacher like a lost puppy throughout the hallways, weaving in between groups of passers-by. He had to stop burning tin as to avoid the loud noises from a few dozen, simultaneous conversations hurting his ears. Luckily, it wasn't that long of a walk.

Izuku shut the door to the lounge behind him and brought tin back to a low simmer. His teacher quickly put down his armful of papers and books on his desk, before sitting in the seat and turning around.

"Alright, now that I've got you alone," he said, "I wanted to ask you about your future plans. I know that you turned in the sheet earlier this term, but you and Bakugo are the only ones in the class that haven't met with me yet for career counseling."  
 _This again,_ Izuku thought with a hint of exasperation. When the worksheets were first due, his teacher had pestered him for a few weeks straight, questioning his choice to only apply to Yuuei.

"What about it?" Izuku said, pulling over a chair and sitting down.

His teacher sighed. "Before we try to get started, let me be clear. I'm not going to try to dissuade you from going to Yuuei, I learned my lesson the first time around."

Izuku smiled, letting a little bit of the tension in his shoulders release. He gave him an appreciative smile before nodding. The older man continued.

"That being said, I wanted to give you some advice." He took a deep breath. "When I was your age, I wanted to be a hero too, I think everybody did at some point. I applied to a bunch of hero schools and...well, I got into none of them."

Izuku pursed his lips, but let the man continue. "I ended up getting into my safety school, and the rest of it is history. Now, as for how this relates to now: I'm not going to try to dissuade you from going to Yuuei, but I am going to ask you to have a backup plan. With your grades, you could get into a good amount of top schools around the area, even Yuuei's general education or support programs. I know you're set on the hero program but…" he paused, "Someone dear to me once told me 'An assassin always needs to wield a second blade.' Odd expression, I know, but it's a way to say that It's always good to have something to fall back on. I have faith in you to do what you want to do in life, but by the nature of your Quirklessness, well…" he trailed off.

Izuku clenched his fast, wincing at the end of the last sentence. He had to try _very_ hard to keep himself from just bursting out with ' _but I'm not Quirkless!'_

"You're saying I should apply to the Yuuei general course?" he said, unsure of what the teacher's goal was. So far, it felt like a roundabout attempt to tell him to stop trying to get into the hero program, while also simultaneously saying 'I'm not trying to tell you to stop trying to get into the hero program.'

"I was getting to that," the teacher responded with a sigh. "I have to send in student counts for testing areas soon, which means I need to send a number to Yuuei of the number of exams for each subject. There's separate exams for the hero program, the general studies program, the business program, and the support program. I'd like you to choose at least one of the latter three to take in addition to the hero program exam, just as a precaution."

Izuku's fingernails dug into his palms, and he winced as tin-enhanced pain shot up his arm. When he met his teacher's eyes, he felt a sense of resignation. His teacher wasn't perfect, the man turned a blind eye to a lot of the bullying that happened in his classroom (mostly directed at Izuku himself, although that had gone down in recent times), and he wasn't the best at explaining some subjects, but now, looking into the man's eyes, Izuku sensed that he really was being genuine; he cared about Izuku's choice and future plans.

Izuku sighed, standing up. "How long do I have to choose?"

The man's face lit up, seemingly surprised Izuku hadn't pushed back at all. "Just get back to me some time in the next month. Unless you get into some sort of early admissions, test numbers are due a month and a half from now."

Izuku nodded and turned to leave. "I'll decide by then," he said, leaving without another word. He stormed through the hallways, trying to make up for any lost time.

 _Yaoyorozu is going to give me a hard time for being late,_ he thought.

* * *

"There he is!" Yaoyorozu's voice called as soon as Izuku opened the door to the roof. "I was beginning to worry that you weren't going to show up."

"My teacher pulled me aside to talk about career counseling," he said with an exaggerated sigh, pulling out his lunch and slumping up against the railing next to Yaoyorozu.

"Sounds like fun," she said, poking at her sushi roll. "How'd it go?"

Izuku rolled his eyes. "Yet another thing to stress about, as if I don't have enough of those already."

As Izuku ate, he kept glancing out of the corner of his vision to see Yaoyorou poking at her food, a slight frown on her face. Part of him wanted to reach out and ask again if anything was wrong, but another part of him held back. She'd told him that morning that there wasn't anything the matter, which either meant that he was misreading things, or she didn't want to talk to him about it, which was completely fair.

So, he decided to take a different approach. "Do you want to go do something after school?"

Yaoyorozu turned to him, a puzzled expression on her face.

"You know, like, go be normal middle schoolers or something like that," he elaborated, only to be met with a deepening frown.

"Don't you have training after school today?"

 _Oh, forgot to mention..._ he thought. "Aizawa-sensei gave me the day off. Didn't want me to overwork myself."

Yaoyorozu stared at him for a moment, before letting out a slight giggle and a nod. "I can resonate with that sentiment. Those bags under your eyes have been arguably worse these last few weeks than when you _weren't_ sleeping," she paused. "You are sleeping, right?"

Izuku nodded and sighed in exasperation. "Yes, I'm sleeping. If you think this is bad, you should see Aizawa-sensei. You could probably hide a body in those bags under his eyes."

"Pfft," Yaoyorozu weezed, spitting up a little of the water she'd been drinking. "That's horrible!"

"What?" Izuku responded, breaking into a smile. "It's true!"

Yaoyorozu wiped off her face with her sleeve. "The only time I've ever met him was when I walked straight by him after you were hospitalized, and I didn't even know who he was then, so I didn't really take the time to memorize his features."

"You might meet him one day," Izuku said with a shrug. "You never know."

Yaoyorozu heaved a sigh, turning back to her food, but this time she had a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips, and Izuku felt a little bit dignified. Something may be bothering her that she didn't want to talk about, but Izuku was at least happy that he could help take her mind off of it, even if just temporarily. Considering that she'd been there for him when he was having a breakdown in the middle of the night, the least he could do was help take her mind off of whatever had unsettled his friend.

 _His friend,_ the thought echoed.

"So, what do you want to do?" Izuku prompted after a moment.

Yaoyorozu hummed. "I feel like you should pick, you're the one with the day off."

"Hmm…" Izuku scratched at the back of his head. He hadn't thought this far ahead. "Maybe we could head down to a cat cafe or something? I think I saw one near downtown Tokyo."

Yaoyorozu raised an eyebrow at him. "When were _you_ near downtown Tokyo?"

Izuku winced internally. He didn't exactly want to tell her that he'd passed by it on his way home from the night of his encounter with Kelsier. "Miss Sakura and a few of the other kids wanted to go shopping last weekend, I didn't really get a choice but to come along."

Yaoyorozu nodded slowly, as if she was unsure about his response. "I'll choose to believe you," she eventually conceded. Izuku silently let out the breath he'd been holding in. The last thing he wanted right now was for her to pry, eventually figure out that he was lying, then get _another_ scolding from his friend. "We'll go to the cat cafe, then. Sounds like fun."

"I can meet you outside the school after class?" Izuku suggested.

Yaoyorzu turned to him, and when she smiled and nodded, he felt a little more at ease. "I'd like that."

* * *

Momo wasn't entirely sure if the fact that Izuku had invited her out to the cat cafe was a coincidence, or if it was deliberate on his part. She was sure she hadn't mentioned her birthday to him; she loathed that the day existed in the first place, so she wasn't exactly eager to bring it up in everyday conversation. So, either Izuku just so happened to get the day off and invited her because he wanted company, or he was scarily good at figuring things out about other people, considering the fact that she didn't have any social media or anything that he could've used to figure out her birthday.

Momo let out a sigh as she relaxed her shoulders and leaned up against one of the streetlamps outside the school building.

"Is something wrong?"

"Eep!" Momo squeaked, nearly jumping out of her skin. Turning around, she found a very confused looking Izuku, characteristic bags under his eyes drawing her gaze. Momo let out a breath, falling back into proper posture.

 _I swear, it's like he's invisible sometimes, your eyes just glaze over him,_ Momo thought. It wasn't like he didn't stick out in a crowd, he was most decidedly not Japanese in complexion, but even then, if you weren't specifically looking for him, it would be easy to miss him.

"Are you okay?" He asked apologetically. Momo nodded.

"You just startled me," she said, "I thought you'd take longer to get out here is all."

He fell silent at that, just nodding in response and pointing towards the exit of campus. He had a habit of doing that, just stopping talking altogether. At first, his on-and-off approach to conversation had thrown her off, but she'd grown used to it over time. Sometimes, he had a habit of taking a conversation by the reins and just driving it, not even giving her time to speak, whilst other times he just didn't speak for minutes at a time.

Momo just followed next to him as they made their way towards the train station. Musutafu was just far enough from central Tokyo that you couldn't walk there reasonably, but it would be a short train ride to get there.

It was when they were settled down in a semi-secluded corner of the train car when Izuku finally initiated a conversation.

"Is everything alright?"

"Hmm?" Momo hummed in response.

"It's just that," Izuku continued, "I know I don't really ask how you do very often. You've helped me out a lot lately, it kinda slipped my mind to return the favor."

Momo flashed him a smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, there hasn't been anything new lately."

 _That's part of the problem, but I don't need to let him know that,_ she thought. Her mom wasn't supposed to be released any time soon, and the only reason she hadn't been sent back to her father's estate to live with him yet was the fact that Japan's child services infrastructure was horrifically unorganized.

"At this point, I'm mostly just gunning for Yuuei. Gotta get in, you know?" she laughed nervously, "I'm not sure if I can or not."

"I'm sure you can," Izuku muttered nonchalantly. Momo looked over to see him staring at the ground, running some sort of metal object between his fingers. "I mean, you've got a really versatile Quirk and the knowledge to back it up. Plus, you're already at the top of our grade academically."

Momo felt her face go a little warm. "I...I appreciate the words of encouragement."

Izuku looked up from the ground and met her eyes. "I mean it!" he said enthusiastically. "You can totally make it in!"

"I'm not trying to say your faith is misplaced," she said quickly. "It's just that...it's not like I've got a _professional hero_ tutoring me three times a week, you know?"

"Well," he paused. "My teacher brought me in today to ask me if I have a backup plan, so even if you somehow don't make it through, do you have some sort of fallback?"

Momo nodded, "I'm applying to Shuiichin. Although I think I've got a better chance at getting into Yuuei, in all honesty. You've gotta either have some rich and famous parents to get in there if you don't ace the entrance exams."

"You do have a rich and famous dad."

Momo winced. "Yeah, not one that would bribe the school a million yen to get me in."

Izuku winced as well. "That much, huh?"

Momo hummed, leaning back a little in her seat. "I feel like Yuuei is a better choice for me in general. I've wanted to be a hero for a long time," she paused. "Plus, Yuuei is one of the only schools around with on-campus dorms, which would be really helpful, considering my mother's hospital situation."

Izuku frowned, going back to messing with the object in his hand, which momo now recognized as a coin, although it was blackened in spots. "Yuuei has dorms?"

"You didn't know? I thought the hero nerd would've researched his dream school a little more," she teased, in an attempt to try to lighten the mood a little bit.

Luckily, it worked. "Hey! I've been busy, you know! It's not my fault Yuuei is super secretive about everything! They won't even release information on what professional heroes teach there!"

"Yeah, it's a relatively new thing, I think. Something about it being a preemptive measure to protect students from potential villain attacks. All students starting next spring will be living in on-campus dorms."

"I'll have to let Miss Sakura know…" he mumbled.

"Getting a little cocky, eh? Just because you've got a professional hero tutoring you doesn't mean you've got a free ticket in."

"I-" Izuku's face flushed red. "That's not what I meant! I was just saying that _in the case that I get in_ Miss Sakura should probably know ahead of time. She's my legal guardian and all, and I was just…"

Momo let out a giggle, at which point Izuku snapped his mouth shut and glared at her. "Calm down," she said. "I was just teasing."

For the rest of the ride, they made small talk about nothing particularly important, but it was better than silence. Slowly, Momo began to forget the unease she'd had at the beginning of the day altogether.

* * *

When Izuku pushed open the door to the cat cafe, an electronic "nyan nyan~!" chimed and all attention in the lobby was immediately drawn to him and Yaoyorozu.

"Welcome!" the lady behind the desk called. She was wearing casual clothing, but her shirt had a nametag and she was wearing a set of fake cat ears. Izuku must've frozen in the doorway for just long enough to make things awkward, because the corner of the lady's smile twitched and Yaoyorozu pushed the door open a little bit more and walked in.

"How can I help you?"  
Yaoyorozu cleared her throat as Izuku sheepishly entered the building. Looking around, he noted that various cat-themed decorations and artworks adorned the walls. The front seemed to be a simple lobby with a small desk. The rest of the room was blocked off by a large red curtain with a white cat paw printed on it.

"Hello," Yaoyorozu said, "I'm...not sure how this works, I'm sorry."

"That's quite alright!" the woman cheered. Glancing at her nametag, Izuku saw her name was Yukimura. "So, we are a non-profit cat cafe, which means all proceeds go to keeping the place open. All you need to do is pay for however much time you want to spend with the kitties. As for the cafe part, we have complimentary tea and light snacks inside!"

"How much is it?" Izuku asked, pulling out his wallet.

"780 yen per hour per person."

 _That's not that expensive,_ he thought. _I should have that._

Opening his wallet, he pulled out a 1,000 yen bill and a 500 yen coin.

"I'm a little short," he mumbled, reaching into his pockets to see if he had any loose change. The only other money he had on him was Kelsier's coin, and he doubted that would pass as payment.

"I'll cover the rest," Yaoyorozu said calmly, retrieving her coin purse.

Izuku flinched, "No it's fine, I can - "

Yaoyorozu shot him a look. "It's sixty yen," she said flatly.

"Yeah, but…"

Yaoyorozu just turned away and handed a few coins to Yukimura. "Don't let him pay the rest."

Yukimura just raised an eyebrow, but nodded and turned to Izuku. With a sigh, he walked forward and gave her the 1,500 yen.

"Thank you!" Yukimura said. "Just walk through the curtain and enjoy your stay!"

"I owe you sixty yen," Izuku grumbled, following the taller teenager towards the drapes.

"You don't owe me sixty yen, you can let me pay for…" she paused. "Just under four percent of the total cost."

"Yeah, but it was my idea! I shouldn't be making you pay!" he protested.

Their conversation was interrupted when they stepped through the curtain and were introduced to a room of what had to be twenty cats. The inside of the room was half cafe, half living room, as one side of the area had seats and tables with people drinking and talking (whilst petting cats of varying shapes and sizes, of course) while the other was just a couch and television.

Yaoyorozu gasped. "There's so many kitties!" she immediately walked over to the nearest one, an orange cat with off-white stripes (calico, was it?) and started petting it. The cat barely acknowledged her existence outside of a soft purr.

"Yaoyorozu, do you want to…" Izuku trailed off in the middle of his question when he saw a figure in the middle of the living room-like area, with what had to be fifteen cats strewn about them. There were cats in their lap, on the ground next to them, on their shoulders, and even one sitting atop their head.

"Izuku," Yaoyorozu said, trotting over, "Want to go get something to drink? There's plenty of cats over there as well."

Izuku barely heard her because he was too entranced by his confusion at what he was witnessing. He'd recognize that baggy clothing and scraggly, unkempt hair anywhere.

"Aizawa-sensei?" he asked, incredulous. The man turned, and the moment Izuku saw the bags under his eyes, he knew his suspicions were confirmed.

Aizawa sat there, gaze boring into Izuku's very soul for what felt like an eternity. While the older man was engaged in a staring match with Izuku, one of the cats from his lap crawled up the man's body and attempted to shove one of the others off of the man's shoulder.

Aizawa finally broke the gaze when he grabbed the offending cat by the scruff of its neck and put it on the ground next to him. "Fluffykins-kun, don't try to push Flooffybottom-san off like that."

Izuku lost his composure. He burst out into laughter so intense that he found it difficult to breathe. He tried to stop himself, but every time he thought about Aizawa-sensei, the man who had thrown him into a mat more times than he could count, calling some cats _Fluffykins-kun_ and _Flooffybottom-san,_ he lost his cool all over again. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, barely able to control his laughter.

He had tears in his eyes by the time Aizawa stood up, causing the army of cats that surrounded him to scatter. Izuku was just able to pull himself together enough to look his mentor in the eyes.

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying your day off," he deadpanned. "Not a word of this on Monday."

Izuku gupled, putting on a serious face. "Yes, sir."

This time, as Aizawa walked out of the room, it was Yaoyorozu's turn to break into laughter.

* * *

 _Yes, I know this chapter took forever to get out. I've been swamped with my school work like you wouldn't even believe. My university is trying to rush all the content out as fast as possible because we'll be shutting down for the semester if COVID-19 has an outbreak near us. Problem is that all the professors are dropping homework bomb after homework bomb and it's difficult to keep up AND write._

 _Hopefully the next chapter shouldn't take too long, I've got it all planned out and the plot should be picking up steam here._

 _Anyways, that's enough from me. See you in the next one!_


	15. Chapter 15: Revelation

**Chapter 15: Revelation**

* * *

 _It's been a hot minute, but that's mostly because of this whole global pandemic thing. Between moving back home and having to readjust my schedule, it took a while to get into the right mindspace to write, and on top of that when i finally did get around to having inspiration to write again, I've been balancing four projects._

 _That being said, the new chapter is here so I hope you enjoy it! Following this chapter, we're finally getting the setup for the story finally done, which means we'll be moving quicker plot-wise._

 _Also, forewarning, but this chapter has only had the first quarter of it beta read. Most chapters of this story go through multiple beta readers, so this chapter will be updated in time. I just wanted to get it up_

* * *

Dagobah Municipal Beach, once a beautiful, widely used beach, was now a popular site for illegal dumping. Officials hardly ever came near the area, and given that every attempt to clean the beach had been met with more dumping, many police officers and heroes no longer bothered with the beach.

To Ochako, however, it was a nearly-perfect site to train her Quirk. Running past the skyscrapers of trash, she slapped her hand onto the side of a broken refrigerator and then the door of an old, broken down Delorean. Freed from the Earth's gravitational field, the two objects started to float towards the sky.

 _About another ton,_ Ochako thought, keeping a mental tally. _That puts me at about two and a half._ It was hard to see through the unnaturally thick fog, but she could make out the outlines of various pieces of rubble floating above the ground. She could feel her stomach starting to protest as she neared her weight limit, but she wasn't quite there yet. She needed to know just how much she could lift before she couldn't lift any more.

 _I told them I'd be going to Yuuei, so that means I've got to get in._ Ochako knew her Quirk wasn't the most suited for taking down villains, but she'd been told ever since it manifested that it was ideal for rescue work, perfect for collapsed buildings, cave-ins, and basically anything else that included removing rubble. It was just a matter of increasing the amount that she could float at a time, which was the goal she'd been working towards for the last few weeks.

She only knew about the beach in the first place because her father had taken her there before it became a massive, multi-kilometer long stretch of municipal waste. Later, she'd seen a news report on how bad the beach had become, and when it came time to find somewhere she wouldn't be seen, Dagobah was the first place that came to mind.

Ochako was searching for more trash to float when the car she'd just lifted groaned and slammed into the sand with a deafening boom, as if it had been hurled down by some invisible force. Ochako let out a squeak as she was pelted by a wave of sand that had been thrown up by the car. She watched with confusion as the car was driven into the ground for a few moments, only to float back up like nothing had happened in the first place.

 _Well that's never happened before,_ she thought, still a bit shocked. Cautiously, she stepped forward, observing the crater left in the sand and the damage to the front bumper. _Maybe it's best if I stop for now..._

* * *

Izuku brought his tin to a simmer as his cloak flapped in the wind behind him. The mists were out again, and he'd finished his homework early. With nothing better to do, he figured he'd get some...exercise. He felt a familiar and vague sense of vertigo as he once again hit a peak in his jump and began to fall towards the ground. As he heard the wind pick up in his ears, he reached below him with steel and pushed against one of the lines that connected him to the ground.

There was a moment's delay, then a resounding _boom_ from the ground a couple dozen meters below him.

 _Must have knocked something off one of those piles,_ he thought, not sparing a glance downwards to check. He didn't quite feel like building hopping, there was too much risk of being seen. It was only a quick, one hour long trip into the mists, so he'd decided to make a lap of the nearby coastline. Naturally, the five-kilometer stretch of Dagobah beach made his steel jumping quite easy considering the massive amounts of metal-based waste that had been dumped there. It wasn't uncommon for him to accidentally push on something near to the top of the pile and send it careening to the ground below.

 _Wonder what fell over this time,_ he thought, pushing against another piece of trash below to keep his momentum. _Well, it doesn't matter much._

When Izuku got to the other end of Dagobah beach, he landed quietly on the roof of an apartment building and pulled out his phone.

 _1:14 am,_ the phone read, _I need to get back home and get to sleep before Yaoyorozu yells at me again._ That fact was emphasized when a raindrop landed on his phone screen, then another on his hand. With a soft sigh, Izuku looked up to the sky, only barely able to make out the dark storm clouds through the mist, even with tin's help. _It's hard to see the clouds when they're the same color as the mists._

Izuku paused. _Wait...Why can I see through the mists so easily but not the clouds? Realistically they should be the same composition, right?_ His thoughts were interrupted when the raindrops picked up in frequency, the cold water splashing his eyes.

"Whatever," he mumbled, turning back on his steel and stepping off the building, flicking a coin to the street below. "I need to get home before I get too wet."

* * *

Ochako returned home completely soaked. After the car she'd floated had been mysteriously slammed into the ground, she'd decided to head home, but not without first getting rained on on her way back to the train station. It had been a very uncomfortable, wet train ride back to the Yaoyorozu estate.

As quietly as she could, Ochako unlocked the door and slipped inside, making sure to keep as quiet as possible. Her mother didn't know she was going out a couple of times a week to train her Quirk, and Ochako intended to keep it that way.

"Good evening, Uraraka-san," a half-whisper came.

"Eep!" Ochako yelped, turning around and pressing her back up against the door. Standing a few meters away was one of the estate's maids. Ochako let out a breath. "Nagisa, you scared me."

Nagisa bowed. "Apologies. I just wanted to make sure I was around to see you get home safe."

Ochako frowned. "How did you know I was gone in the first place?"

Nagisa just smiled. "I saw you leave, of course."

Ochako rolled her eyes, sighing. _Of course she did. I thought I covered my tracks pretty well, too…_ A moment of pause came as Ochako itched at her inner leg where her shorts stuck to the skin. "You won't tell my mother about this, will you?"

Nagisa smiled again. "I'll report to the mistress if she requests for me to do so."

"Thank you," Ochako said, finally stepping away from the door. She'd long since learned that 'I'll report to the mistress if she requests for me to do so' meant 'I'll only tell her if she specifically asks what you were doing at this specific time'.

Ochako passed the maid, who only bowed and spoke softly. "The showers on your side of the building should not be loud enough to be heard by the mistress."

She smiled. "Thank you again, Nagisa."

"I'm only doing my job."

* * *

Izuku left for school the next morning with sleep still in his eyes. The previous night's escapade hadn't exactly been conducive to getting a proper amount of sleep, so by the time his alarm went off, he'd only managed to get about 4 hours of rest.

 _Can't miss a day,_ he told himself. It wasn't like he could burn pewter to wake himself up, either, since using the metal would completely invalidate the point of the run itself.

The school day held no notable events apart from his teacher's pestering to get back to him on which Yuuei entrance exam he was going to take in addition to the one for the hero course.

When the final bell rang signaling that the school day was over, Izuku headed for the train station so that he could make it to his training session with Aizawa. He was tired still, but that wasn't going to keep him from missing a day.

The last time Izuku remembered asking Aizawa about his Quirk was a month prior, and his mentor hadn't so much as mentioned it since then. Every day had been more of the same, and while Izuku _was_ seeing improvement in his fighting ability and fitness level, he was starting to get fed up with it all. The Yuuei entrance exam was only a few more months away, and if he wanted to get in, he couldn't be pulling any punches, which meant being confident with his Quirk. If not for the fact that he'd been practicing on his own a few times a week, he'd have been not using his Quirk for over two months now.

 _Is he...scared to work with it?_ Izuku thought, frowning. Trying to keep his mind occupied on the train. _That can't be right._

The train came to a screeching halt, tering Izuku from his thoughts.

* * *

Izuku circled Aizawa, keeping a careful eye on the man's capture weapon. Over the last few weeks, he'd learned a lot more about how he used them and had therefore learned a lot more about how to counter it. The most important takeaway was that Aizawa didn't use the bands like a weapon, but more like a tool. He didn't rely on them to do his job for him, but rather made them more like an extension of his body. Rather than attempting to directly restrain someone, he'd instead just use them as a finisher once somebody was already vulnerable or only restrain one body part to make it effectively useless.

 _Distract._

Izuku ran at Aizawa, keeping low to the ground as to allow for his cloak to hide most of his body's more precise movements, a trick he'd picked up from Kelsier. When he got close, he unclipped one of the empty metal pouches from his belt and threw it at the man's face, forcing him to release his grip on his capture weapon in order to bat away the object.

 _Block the blind jab._

With part of his vision obstructed, Aizawa abandoned using the bands and instead lashed out with his right fist in an attempt to force Izuku to put some distance between them so that he could recuperate. Izuku instinctively batted the punch away and downwards.

 _Get a hit in._

With no way for Aizawa to protect his right side, Izuku threw a jab at his mentor's ribs, which connected, forcing the older man to recoil away from the strike.

 _Throw him off balance._

Izuku had the momentum, which is precisely why he couldn't let up the attack. He stuck out his leg as his teacher recoiled from the punch, which he stumbled over. Aizawa, unable to keep on his feet, stumbled for a few meters before falling onto the mat.

 _I won?_ Izuku let out the breath he'd been holding in."I won!"

"Yes, yes," Aizawa said, pulling himself into a sitting position. "You finally won."

"You weren't going easy on me, right?" Izuku probed.

Aizawa sighed, shaking his head. "No, you did well. You've come a long way since I first took you on."

Izuku let out a sigh of relief, falling to a sitting position on the mat.

"Of course," Aizawa said after a moment, "There are some things you could improve on. If I had better balance or was a bigger opponent, you wouldn't have been able to make me trip at the end there."

Izuku gulped, nodding.

"That's not to say there aren't things you did well, like that distraction at the beginning. When you have that cloak on, it's really hard to tell what your movements are under it." Aizawa said, "Looks like training with all our gear on was a good idea after all."

They sat for a moment, catching their breath. In the two months since Aizawa had started teaching Izuku how to fight, this was the first time he'd actually bested his teacher. That put his win rate at a little less than a tenth of a percent, which was infinitely better than the zero percent he was at before.

Izuku let himself smile. _Maybe…_

"Aizawa-sensei," Izuku started tentatively, "Now that I've won one, do you think we could start working with my Quirk tomorrow?'

Aizawa, who had just taken a drink from his water bottle, froze for a moment. He stared at Izuku with a flat, unreadable gaze for a moment before sighing, pulling himself into a standing position.

"Midoriya, do you not trust me to properly prepare you for the Yuuei entrance exam?"

Izuku pursed his lips, breaking eye contact and looking towards the ground. "I - no, that's not -" he stuttered out.

"Truthfully," Aizawa said, more of a warning than anything else.

Izuku gulped, letting out a breath and slumping his shoulders forward. "It's not that I don't trust you; you've done a lot with helping teach me. My problem is that I don't understand why we can't work with my Quirk yet."

Aizawa sighed, and out of the corner of his eye, Izuku saw the man's hand clench around the neck of his water bottle. Before the man could say anything, Izuku continued. "Ever since we learned that pewter boosts my abilities to a flat level, it's been really hard to see a point in all of this training. If I can make up the lack of physical ability by burning pewter, then wouldn't the time be better spent working on other metals?"

"You asked the same question a month ago," Aizawa interrupted. "I thought you'd come to understand the point of this portion of the training in that time, but it seems I was mistaken."

Izuku bit his lip to stop a retort from escaping his lips. _Why are you talking down to me like I'm a naive child?_ Instead, his mouth moved to say something arguably worse. "It's hard to understand the point when you never communicate anything with me. Every time I come in, you just seem so distant that it feels like you don't even care sometimes."

At this, Izuku saw Aizawa tense up. He wasn't sure if he'd stuck a nerve, or if the man was simply caught off guard by Izuku's sudden outburst. Granted, Izuku himself hadn't quite expected to say that, either.

When Aizawa finally spoke again, his voice wasn't the monotone, flat-toned one that he usually spoke in. This time it was deep with a heavy air of authority accompanying it. "Midoriya, do you feel like these training sessions have been wasting your time?"

The man stated it like a simple, easy question to answer. Yes or no, nothing needed past a single word. Yet, knowing the man that stood in front of him, the entire future of their relationship hinged on Izuku's answer.

"No," Izuku said truthfully. "Whether we work with my Quirk or not, I've learned a lot here."

"Good," Aizawa said, "If you'd said yes to that question, I would have dropped you as a student. I don't see them as a waste of time, either. I said it when I first offered to train you, and I'll say it again: I wouldn't waste my time teaching a person that I don't see potential in. The only reason you're here right now is because I think that you have what it takes to make it, you just need someone to help you along the path."

Izuku opened his mouth to respond, but snapped it right back shut when he realized he didn't have anything to actually say.

His mentor continued. "You're right. If you think of your Quirk in isolation, there's no point to training like this. In a closed system, you'd be better off _not_ training because you could move less muscle mass with the same amount of force, so you'd be faster." A pause. "Sorry to break it to you, kid, but the world doesn't care about closed systems. What are you going to do when somebody has a Quirk that can disable your metals? What about if you run out of fuel? What happens when you can't save them because you've only ever trained with your Quirk?"

For a moment, just a fraction of a second while he blinked, Izuku's mind flashed back all the way to nearly fifteen years ago and the pool of blood spread out around his mother's body after the villain - _No, don't think about that._

Aizawa walked past Izuku, headed for the 'staff only' door. "You've got to trust me. We'll get to your Quirk in due time, but we're going to break for today. You need to decide for yourself if you're getting what you want out of this and reflect on if it's worth your time or not. If you believe that your time would be better spent working with your Quirk alone, then don't come back Monday and that will be the end of that."

Izuku didn't pick himself up off the mat to change back into his normal clothes until many minutes after he heard the 'staff only' door shut behind him.

* * *

After what Ochako had since dubbed 'the car incident' at the beach, she'd taken some time away from training with her Quirk. While not _completely_ sure, she was thinking that she might've found another effect of overworking her Quirk, in addition to the nausea: things spontaneously regaining their gravity.

 _It seemed like it had been_ forced _down, though,_ she thought, leaning back in her chair. _That wasn't just the car falling, it had been thrown into the ground. Gravitational amplification, then?_

"Ugh," she groaned, getting up from her desk. "Why do Quirks have to be so complicated? Why can't they just come with like, an instruction manual?"

With a huff, she threw herself onto her bed, crawling under the covers with the grace of a snail and not even bothering to change out of her sweatpants. She pulled out her phone, checked the date, then slid it under her pillow.

 _Three months until the entrance exam. If I don't have a handle on things by then..._

* * *

The fact that Midoriya didn't text her all weekend was...well, not exactly a cause of concern, but it certainly stuck out as odd to Momo. Ever since they'd exchanged phone numbers, Midoriya had kept in touch whenever he wasn't busy, which, granted, was almost all of the time as of late, but it was still odd to not wake up to find a text containing some nonsensical detail from his morning that he'd felt the need to tell her (she'd received everything from 'I just stubbed my toe' to 'I'm going to be late, I had to remake Kaede-chan's oatmeal because she dropped it on the floor').

 _If he's not busy,_ Momo thought, glancing at the clock, _I could use some time out of the house._

With a sigh, she pulled herself out of bed at the glorious hour of 1 P.M. and walked over to her dresser, pulling out the most casual sundress she could find. With autumn in full swing, warm days like this one were far and few between (she could tell it was hot outside because her house lacked air conditioning and it was warmer than what could be called comfortable).

Soon enough, Momo found herself standing outside Midoriya's house. She hesitated for a moment before knocking, but as soon as she did, she heard a chorus of children's voices from the other side of the door.

"Someone's here!"

"Miss Sakura! There's someone at the door!"

"I've got it!"

A moment later, the door creaked open and Momo had to redirect her gaze downwards. "Hello," she said, smiling softly. The girl who had answered the door was one of the youngest kids at the foster home, and Momo wracked her brain trying to remember her name. _Komiko? Konoko? Komekko?_

The girl looked up at Momo, small eyes widening as she craned her neck up to look Momo in the eyes, short, brown hair pulled away from her face by the combined forces of gravity and the star-shaped hair pin that was significantly too large for her face. When Momo smiled at the girl, she turned around and breathed in before shouting. "Sakuraaaa! Izukkun's girlfriend is here!"

Momo's soft smile at the girl's cuteness quickly turned to a frown as Momo opened her mouth to object, but quickly shut it again as Miss Sakura made her way towards the door. "Don't worry about Komekko."

Momo let out a sigh and nodded. "Is Midoriya here?"

"In his room, I think. Does he know you're coming?"

A quick shake of her head. "I just needed some time out of the house, and it's nice outside."

"Good," Sakura said, stepping out of the way and gesturing for Momo to enter the building. "I'll send one of the children to get him. He's been cooped up in there since Friday, so take him out, would you?"

Momo nodded, walking in the house but not walking far from the door. She stood in wait as one of the other foster children who had been watching television went scrambling up the stairs, only to come back down less than ten seconds later, returning to his spot on the couch, breathing a _little_ heavier than he had been a few moments prior.

It took just long enough for Midoriya to come downstairs to make the air between Momo and Miss Sakura to become awkward, and when the boy did finally come down, his hair was dishevelled, his pajamas - because he obviously had not gotten properly dressed yet - unruly and...were those _All Might slippers?_

Momo cleared her throat, but before she even got to talk, Midoriya looked up from the floor at her, eyes widening in what could only be described as sheer terror. Without a word, he turned and _bolted_ up the staircase. Silently, she shut her mouth and waited, listening to the symphony of doors slamming open and shut, drawers being thrown open, and then a sink being turned on and back off. Finally, the stairs creaked and Midoriya returned, this time wearing a tee shirt and jeans, his hair slightly better taken care of (albeit marginally, the boy didn't seem to be big on hair care in the first place to begin with).

"Good _afternoon,_ " Momo said. "Those were some nice slippers."

"Shut up," Midoriya said, flushing slightly.

 _He makes it too easy,_ Momo thought, _Although I shouldn't tease him too much. I wasn't out of bed myself until half an hour ago, either._

"Yaoyorozu, do you want some tea?" Sakura interjected.

Momo shook her head. "No, it's alright. I'm headed to the park; I just wanted to check if Midoriya wanted to join me. I know he's been busy with his apprenticeship and all, so…" she trailed off.

Midoriya opened his mouth, but before any words came out, Miss Sakura gave him a little push. "He'd love to."

For the first time since he'd come downstairs, Izuku broke the tiniest of smiles. "Sure."

* * *

"Which park are we headed to?" Midoriya spoke up as they walked, kicking a stone from the sidewalk onto the road. "There's a big one over in the Endor district, or we could just go to the one nearby."

"Well," Momo said, side-stepping a pedestrian. "How long would it take to get to the one in Endor?"

Midoriya hummed. "I don't know how long it would be to walk, but probably fifteen minutes by train. I'm not completely sure because I haven't ever actually taken the train to get there."

The implication of his sentence, whether it was conscious or not, was obvious, and Momo rolled her eyes. "Well, unlike _someone_ , I need to actually take the train to get halfway across the city." A pause. "Let's just go to the one that's close."

The rest of the walk was made in relative silence. Midoriya kept his gaze on the ground for the most part, and any attempt to start a conversation was met with a mix of 'yeah', 'okay', and not much else. It felt like talking to a brick wall, except even a brick wall would bounce your sound back at you and make an echo.

What completely convinced Momo that Midoriya had something on his mind, however, was when they arrived at the park and she turned down the path that cut the open area in half, only to see that Midoriya had continued walking, completely unaware.

"Earth to Midoriya!" she called, drawing the gaze of passers-by but also accomplishing her goal of getting his attention. He stopped, looked around as if he'd just woken up from sleepwalking, and then jogged over.

"Sorry," was all he said.

The park wasn't exactly a park, but more of an open space. It covered about four city blocks, and was, for the most part, just an open, grassy plain peppered with trees. The main structure was the winding path that went through the middle, surrounded on each side by trees that made a loose canopy above the path.

They didn't even get halfway down the path before Momo got fed up with it. Midoriya was practically following her like a lost puppy and it was getting on her nerves.

 _I'm sure he's got some reason for it, but it doesn't make the moping any less annoying._ She thought. _Guess I'm playing therapist today._

With a heavy sigh, she turned around, grabbing onto Midoriya's wrist and pulling him off the path. She dragged him about ten meters away from the path, ignoring his protesting, and sat down in the grass.

"Alright," she said, closing her eyes and letting out a breath. "You've got something on your mind." It wasn't a question.

Midoriya stared at her for a moment with those tired, almost hazy eyes, then sighed, breaking the gaze and slumping his shoulders forwards. "Yeah."

"Have you been sleeping properly? You didn't do something stupid again, did you?"

"No, no," Midoriya paused. "Well, actually kinda. I've been sleeping well, but yes, I might've done something stupid."

Momo stayed silent, waiting for him to elaborate. The boy just laid down in the grass, staring at the clouds above him.

"I made Aizawa angry."

 _So that's what it is._ Momo had suspected it was something in that vein, but hadn't been quite sure on what exactly.

Midoriya put his hand up, reaching up towards the sky with an open palm. "I asked him if we could start working with my Quirk, and when he said no, I got mad, which made him mad, and then when he got mad, I got even more mad and…" he closed his hand into a fist, then let the arm drop down to his side limply. "I think I flew a little too close to the sun."

"How bad?"

"I can't tell," Midoriya frowned. "He basically told me that I need to rethink things and decide whether or not to come back tomorrow. I'm worried he'll get angry if I actually show up."

Momo just sighed and leaned back a little, putting most of her weight onto her arms. She didn't want to lay all the way down with the dress she was in, but she didn't exactly feel like sitting up with perfect posture, either.

"Well," she said eventually. "Do you want to go back?"

"Yes. His lessons have been really helpful, whether I'm working on my Quirk or not. It's better than nothing. I'm just worried that I stepped over a line and now I can't go back."

Momo hummed for a moment, eyes drawn towards the clouds above. She wasn't sure on what the full story was, but she was sure of one thing: Midoriya, despite being busier than she'd ever seen him, was smiling more ever since he started the apprenticeship. A breeze blew through the area, and Momo pushed herself back to an upright position. "I think you should just go back," she finally said.

"But what if -" Midoriya started.

"If you want to go back, you should go back," Momo repeated. "If he was just dropping you as a student, he wouldn't have given you the choice, I think. I don't know him as well as you do, but he doesn't seem like the type to tell you one thing and mean something different."

Midoriya frowned, but he didn't open his mouth to protest. Instead, he sat up, wrapping his arms around his legs and bringing his chin up to rest on his knee. "I'll...have to think about it more."

"Are you feeling better, at least? You were like a ghost the entire way here."

Midoriya just stood up. "A little. Enough to actually hold a conversation, at least." He flashed a smile, and Momo just felt a grin touch her lips in return. She pulled herself to her feet.

As they returned to the path, as Momo was batting the loose strands of grass off her skirt, Midoriya passed by her. "Thanks," he said softly.

Momo smiled. "It's what friends do."

* * *

Despite the fact that he wasn't sure whether or not he truly wanted to go back to that Yuuei warehouse the following day, Izuku found himself on the train after school. He couldn't stop himself from fidgeting with the coin in his pocket.

His talk with Yaoyorozu had certainly helped a little; he'd gone from 'completely torn on what to do' to 'generally uneasy about what Aizawa would think when he showed up'. The sound of the train coming to a halt pierced Izuku's thoughts as he stood, worming his way to the door of the tram.

The rest of the walk to the training center, Izuku fidgeted with Kelsier's coin in his pocket, counting the cracks in the sidewalk. Eventually, he found himself at the main entrance, staring down the top hero school's logo. As he raised his hand to push it open, he froze.

 _If you don't think it's worth your time, don't bother showing up on Monday,_ Aizawa's words echoed through Izuku's mind and the boy stopped dead in his tracks. The reasonable, logical part of him wanted to push on and just go in the door.

Another part of him, the part that was still the timid, dreaming boy without a Quirk, stopped. _It's not worth it, he made it pretty clear on Friday, didn't he? He doesn't want you._ Izuku clenched his fist, his entire body tensing up. He tried to reach for his metals, but couldn't find anything there. He _knew_ he still had some pewter in him, but as soon as he tried to reach for the source, it disappeared. He could still _feel_ it there, but it was as if he'd forgotten how to access it.

Frantically, he checked the rest of metal reserves, closing his eyes and shutting out the entire outside world, but it was futile. Nearly all of his metals were gone, empty shells where he should've been able to find the powers he'd become so familiar with over the course of the last few months.

 _You should just go home._

All of his metals were gone, all except one. Brass was still there, the first metal he'd been able to use. A solitary familiar source of power. His 'Luck'.

" _Survive."_ Kelsier's words echoed in Izuku's mind, and without a second thought, he reached out and burned brass. WIth a rush, all of his metals returned as if they'd never left and his eyes snapped open.

Then, he chuckled. "I'd never know what Aizawa thinks unless I ask him, do I?" he muttered to himself. Without another moment of hesitation, Izuku grabbed onto the handle and pushed the door open.

Inside, Aizawa was standing in his usual spot in the middle of the room and at the sound of the door slamming open, he turned, meeting Izuku's eyes from across the track. Then, simply, he cleared his throat. "Good, you're on time, get changed."

 _Huh?_

Izuku frowned, walking in enough to let the heavy door slam shut behind him. "Get changed?"

Aizawa just sighed. "Yes, go get changed. I don't think I need to remind you that you need to be changed to be considered on time."

Silence fell between the two as Izuku just stood, put off by the nonchalant nature of Aizawa's speech. "That's it? Are we not even going to talk about…"

"I suppose I should have expected this," Aizawa let out an exasperated breath. "On Friday, I told you to come back if you thought these lessons were worth your time. I also told you that I see them as worth _my_ time because I see you as a student worth teaching. Now, here we are. You showed up, which means your choice is pretty clear. Do we need to say anything else?"

"You mean you're not mad at me or anything?"

"A bit irritated, but no. I'm not going to punish you for questioning my teaching methods, so long as you accept them, which your presence here today obviously indicated the answer to _that_ question." Aizawa just raised an eyebrow. "Are we clear, Midoriya?"

Realistically, Izuku knew he should've expected something like this. Aizawa was a very practical man, and getting caught up on personal grudges wasn't something Izuku could see his mentor doing. In all reality, he should've seen that 'don't come back on Monday if you don't think it's worth your time' was meant in the most literal of ways, essentially saying 'if this isn't worth it for you, then it isn't worth it for you, and that's all there is to it.'

In that moment, Izuku felt his respect for his mentor grow a little. So, he just nodded, smiling.

"Good, now go get changed," Aizawa said, gesturing to the door and turning around. "Be quick."

Izuku nodded and started jogging towards the locker room, but stopped again when Aizawa called back to him a moment later.

"Oh, Midoriya, I almost forgot to say it, but don't make any plans for this Saturday."

Izuku slowed and looked over his shoulder just in time to see and then catch a blur out of the corner of his eye, something presumably thrown by Aizawa himself. Snagging it out of the air, Izuku inspected the offending item. It was just a piece of paper with...an ID card attached to it? Noticing his confusion, Aizawa continued.

"That's your ticket into the Yuuei recommended students exam."


	16. Chapter 16: The Exam Part 1

**Chapter 16: The Exam, Part 1**

* * *

Shouta knew he wasn't the greatest teacher - he'd gone to school for heroism, not education, afterall. He misstepped frequently, often resulting in anything from minor setbacks to serious injuries. He was far from perfect, he knew, and owning up to his mistakes when he made them was the first step towards growing, both as an instructor and as a person.

So, when Midoriya emerged from the locker room in Yuuei's standard gym clothes, Shouta waved him over. "Midoriya, I didn't mention this before, but I believe that I owe you an apology."

The boy just frowned, looking up to meet Shouta's eyes. "Why?"

He let out a sigh, carefully placing a hand on his pupil's shoulder. Midoriya flinched, which was expected, but to the boy's credit, he didn't jump away like most other times that Shouta initiated any sort of contact. "You aren't the only one at fault for our disagreement last week. After you left, I got to thinking about how I've set up your training regimen," he started. "I won't lie to you and say that I've been completely transparent - I haven't."

Midoriya just stayed silent, which Shouta had come to learn that he agreed but didn't want to actually outright say as such. So, Shouta continued. "Up until now, I have not been good about communicating with you. It's a habit that I have and I've never really trained anybody personally like this, so before we get started today, I'll let you ask any questions you want so that we can be on the same page."

Shouta had to stop himself from smiling when Midoriya's eyes lit up and he immediately opened his mouth to respond. "You got me a spot in the Yuuei recommended student exam?"

"Yes," Shouta said simply.

"Why?"

"Because I have confidence in your ability to pass." It was true; Shouta knew what the exam entailed, and while he couldn't exactly tell Midoriya that on account of the rules in place to keep the competition fair, he had no doubt the boy could succeed and earn one of the coveted early-admission slots.

"Even though we haven't worked with my Quirk at all?" Midoriya didn't say it in an accusatory way, but that didn't stop Shouta from hesitating for a moment. Despite their conversation on his arrival, Shouta had a feeling that his apprentice hadn't become any less irritated by the lack of focus on his Quirk, but had just come to accept Shouta's teaching approach.

A breath. "Midoriya, I'm going to tell you this, but I need you to promise that you won't let it get to your head."

A frown flashed across his face, but he quickly nodded. "I promise."

"Part of the reason that I haven't worked with your Quirk this entire time is that I recognized that your base level of ability is more than enough to pass the Yuuei entrance exam," he sighed. "I wanted to put focus on your weaker areas first, those being your fitness and base fighting ability."

"Good enough to pass…?" Midoriya's gaze dropped to the floor as his hand rose to his chin. "That doesn't make sense, I only just got my Quirk a few months ago! Other people have had theirs for years longer than me!"

"Considering that most Quirks aren't good for much more than party tricks, you've already got a leg up."

Midoriya opened his mouth to respond and shut it a moment later when no sound came out. Shouta watched the boy shuffle his feet before speaking again. "You're sure I can pass? It's the recommendation exam, right? Everyone there's gotta be super strong."

"Well," Aizawa started. "The Yuuei recommended students exam has a lot of misconceptions around it. Many think that its entire purpose is to give a spot to the people who pay the school a lot of money to get their child in, but that couldn't be further from the truth."

"How so?"

"To get a spot in the recommended exam, the student must be endorsed by an alumni of the heroics course. This typically means - "

"What?" Midoriya interjected, face lighting up. "Aizawa-sensei, does this mean you graduated from Yuuei?"

"I did."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Midoriya sprung forward, taking multiple steps towards Shouta, causing the hero to backpedal in order to avoid the sudden invasion of personal space.

"Where I went to school is not necessary information," Shouta breathed, striving to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"Of course it is! I have so many questions I could ask you! What's it like? Do you know any of the teachers there? Has Yuuei's reputation helped you in your heroism career?"

 _Asking too many questions is exactly part of the reason why it's not necessary information,_ Shouta thought, biting his lip to keep himself from just saying it outright. "Let's focus on actually _getting in_ first." Midoriya froze at this, flushing with embarrassment after a moment of thought.

"Yes, sir," the boy said, voice two octaves higher than normal.

Shouta let out a sigh before continuing. "As I was saying, all of the students at that exam are going to have an endorsement from an alumni of the heroics program. While some are cases like you, most are just the children of professional heroes."

"Wouldn't that mean they've all got really strong Quirks?"

"That's the goal. The purpose of the recommendation exam is to filter out all of the students that would normally blow away the main exam. Kids that are trained by heroes are always going to have a leg up on regular testers."

"I don't understand," Midoriya said. "Wouldn't that mean that it's just that much harder for me to pass it? Steeper competition and all?"

"Most, if not all, of the students at that exam are going to be the children of professional heroes who have let their ego carry them through life. Many will try to piggyback off of mommy or daddy's fame and think that just because their Quirk is strong, they basically have a free pass into the school. Almost all of them don't use their Quirk to their full capability and have never properly trained to do so. In all reality, Midoriya, each of your metals is weak on its own, but when combined and put to use by someone smart, it _works_ ," Shouta finished.

Midoriya stayed silent for a long while, obviously deep in thought. When he finally opened his mouth, it was to repeat a question he'd already asked. "Do you really think I can pass?"

Shouta allowed himself a smile as he ruffled his pupil's hair. "I wouldn't have enrolled you in the exam if I didn't think you'd pass. You're good with your Quirk, kid, and you've got a good head on your shoulders." After finishing, he turned around and walked towards the center of the large, open room. "That being said, you brought your metals today, right? I figured we'd start working with them."

* * *

As it turned out, 'work with your metals' didn't mean trying out new metals to try to produce new effects, it just meant they'd touch up on the skills he'd already gathered before the upcoming exam on the weekend.

 _I suppose it doesn't make sense to try to expand the horizons right now,_ Izuku thought begrudgingly. _I should just focus on making sure I'm confident in what I already have._

The drills Aizawa ran him through weren't all that different from the practice he'd been getting by going out into the mists. They'd started by sparring, except this time Izuku was allowed to use pewter to make sure he was practiced with moving around while under the influence of the metal. It also served as a humbling experience, since he still couldn't keep up with his mentor in close quarters, even with an advantage. After that, they'd done some mobility practice with iron and steel, something which Izuku excelled at, and by the time he retreated to the locker room to change and head home for the day, he was satisfied with the exception of two things nagging at the back of his mind.

"Hey, Aizawa-sensei, before I leave, I've got a couple more questions," he announced as he pushed the locker room door open. The scruffy man, to Izuku's relief, was still in the main room, organizing some equipment.

"Shoot," he said, not looking up from the task at hand.

"Well," Izuku gulped, trying his best to not psyche himself out of the question. "I was just wondering why you waited so long to tell me about the exam. If I'd known earlier, I could have done more to prepare and…"

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you until now," Aizawa interrupted. "I knew that as soon as you learned about the exam, you'd just stress yourself out about it and not actually focus on the lessons - you've been doing it with the regular exam for months now. How you perform on this type of exam is not affected by how much time beforehand you know about it, it's not like an english test."

Izuku frowned. "But I could've spent some extra time outside of these lessons getting prepared."

"Which, again, is why I didn't tell you. I don't want you trying anything outside of a controlled environment, and I definitely don't want you spending the entire week high on pewter practicing all night."

Izuku glanced away, thoroughly guilt tripped. Aizawa had a point, if he'd known about the exam a month ago, well, he'd learned his lesson about pewter dragging, but he also couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't make the same mistake again with the threat of the exam looming over his head. By only telling him a few days beforehand, AIzawa guaranteed that even if Izuku planned on going out into the mists all night for the rest of the week, he wouldn't put himself in a position to crash like the last time.

"One more thing before you go," Aizawa walked across the room and retrieved something from his backpack. "I need to give you this."

What the man produced from the bag was a simple belt, not much different from the one that Izuku himself used for his metal pouches. This one, however, had about half a dozen little leather slots on each side of the buckle. In his other hand was a box.

"What's this?" Izuku asked, grabbing both objects. He opened the box, only to find about two-dozen plastic vials, all full of a clear liquid and...metal shavings?

"I figured that making a concentrated dose of all the metals you could need would be more efficient than individually swallowing them. The tubes are meant to fit into the slots on the belt and each one contains about two hours worth of each metal, proportioned based on the tests we did last month. The liquid inside has a little bit of alcohol in it to prevent the iron from rusting, so it'll probably take a bit to get used to the taste."

"I - " Izuku tried to speak but was stunned silent. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything, then. Just think of it as a good-luck gift for your exam later this week."

"Thank you," Izuku breathed out. He stuffed the belt and box into his backpack and bowed to Aizawa. He was about to turn to leave before Aizawa's voice tore him away from that task.

"I should also say, I know the timing may seem a little convenient, considering our conversation earlier, but I had always planned to start work on your Quirk this week. I have confidence in your ability, and while I wanted to start with the basics, I'm not stupid enough to let you go into that exam cold-turkey."

Izuku smiled, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and turning to leave all in one, fluid movement. "I believe you." Then, as he walked away, he mumbled under his breath. "I can't believe Aizawa-sensei is a tsundere…"

"I heard that."

* * *

Izuku was hardly able to get any sleep that night due to a combination of anxiety and excitement. On one hand, he was going to figure out by the end of the week whether or not he got into Yuuei. On the other hand, he was going to figure out by the end of the week whether or not he got into Yuuei. It was a single day that could determine his entire future, which was frankly terrifying, so it was natural that he couldn't help but think about whether it was his impending doom or saving grace.

Still, as much as he wanted to go out into the mists, he decided to listen to Aizawa and get some proper rest. So, he found himself in front of Yaoyorozu's house early the next morning, stomach empty of metals and ready to get to class. Luckily, he didn't have to wait for long for the wooden door to swing open.

"Good morning," Yaoyorozu yawned as she stepped out.

"Morning," Izuku echoed. "You look more tired than I feel."

Yaoyorozu flashed a smile before falling into step next to him. "Didn't sleep well last night."

"You too?"

"Mhmm," Yaoyorozu hummed. "The hospital called."

Izuku gulped, opting to stay silent for fear of accidentally saying something to make things worse. If she wanted to elaborate, she'd elaborate and it wasn't his place to ask her to do so.

Yaoyorozu let out a big sigh, pulling a water bottle out from her bag. "Anyways, what're you losing sleep over?" she asked between gulps.

"Oh it's uhh…" he mumbled, kicking a rock off of the sidewalk and into the street. "Trying to not psych myself out over this exam at the end of the week."

"Aren't you like the top of the class or something?" Yaoyorozu frowned. "What're you doing stressing over an exam?" She raised the water bottle to her lips one more time.

Izuku glanced over his shoulder, double checking to make sure a certain angry blonde wasn't anywhere within earshot. "Aizawa-sensei put me in for the Yuuei recommended students exam."

The water that had been in Yaoyorozu's mouth suddenly found itself on the ground, spat out. "The _what now?_ " she sputtered, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

"The recommended students exam," Izuku repeated. "Aizawa-sensei put in an endorsement for me."

There was a brief pause that could only be attributed to Yaoyorozu processing what she'd just heard. Izuku couldn't really blame her for being surprised, he himself had known about it for little longer than twelve hours at this point and he _still_ wasn't sure if it was real or if he was actually dreaming it all up. Who knows, he might've gone pewter dragging again and just couldn't recall that fact from inside his exhaustion-coma.

"Well," she finally said. "That's...when is it?'

"Saturday."

"S - " she stammered, coming to a halt. "Saturday? Why so little warning?"

Izuku shrugged. "He thought I'd just end up stressing about it as soon as I knew about it up until I got the results, so he figured that the best course of action would just be to give me as little time to do...well, that." He paused. "Stress myself out, I mean."

"I got what you meant." Yaoyorozu sighed, rolling her eyes as she fell back into step with him. "I don't know, still seems a bit inconsiderate to me."

Izuku stayed silent, and for the rest of the walk to school he tried to steer the conversation away from the exam. The less he thought about it, the less he'd worry.

Eventually, they made it to the school and headed to their respective classes, but as Izuku pulled open the door to his classroom, he heard someone clear their voice behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Izuku saw nothing but the (albeit slim) figure of his homeroom teacher.

"Good morning, Midoriya," he said.

Izuku just looked at the man for a second before stepping to the side, holding open the door. "Sorry, I was in the way."

"No, it's fine." The man gestured and Izuku stepped inside, speeding across the room to his seat. The teacher, earlier than usual, set some things behind his desk and began to write the lesson plan on the board. Izuku pulled out his notebook and laptop, deciding to use the time to catch up on hero news he'd missed from the last few days.

The scratching sound of chalk stopped. "Midoriya, before I forget," the teacher said, looking over his shoulder. "Have you decided what exam you're going to take in addition to the hero course one? I need to know by next Monday."

 _I completely forgot about that,_ Izuku thought, freezing. He'd shoved the meeting with his teacher to the edge of his mind pretty much immediately after having it in the first place, and with how busy he'd been in the past month, he's all but forgotten about it. "I'll get back to you on Monday," he said slowly. "I still need some more time to decide."

His teacher just turned back to the board as the scratching of chalk continued. "As long as I have an answer by then…"

* * *

The days passed by in a flash, between school and Aizawa's training sessions, and while they didn't break any new ground with regards to his Quirk - they stuck to the metals he knew and didn't make up any new techniques - he did strengthen his familiarity with his metals. He felt pretty confident that his level of ability was back up to where it had been in the peak of his midnight adventures into the mists, and he'd gotten more familiar with applying the general skills Aizawa had taught him.

Yet, despite all of his preparation, he felt a chill run down his spine as he approached Yuuei's main campus, visitor badge in hand. The glass school building's massive, looming figure drew Izuku's attention and he couldn't help but gawk at the size of it. He knew that Yuuei was one of the biggest high schools in the entire country, but _still_ , the size was astounding, composed of four, skyscraper-sized towers in a square connected by skybridges.

Izuku gulped as he came to a halt a few dozen steps away from the main gate. _As long as you have that badge, the school's gate should let you in without a problem,_ Aizawa had told him. Before he could second guess himself, he continued onward, passing through the logo-adorned arch without a problem.

 _I'm here…_ Izuku gawked as he walked, taking in his surroundings. The trees that lined the foyer were in pristine condition and the same could be said about the path that led from the gate to the school's front door.

"Good morning!" a booming voice called from across the courtyard. Izuku was glad he hadn't been burning tin, otherwise his eardrums might've burst. Still, it had gotten his attention and Izuku turned, speed walking to the school's main entrance, where a man with spiky yellow hair and an unnatural, triangle-shaped mustache was waiting.

"Present Mic?" Izuku asked in disbelief. "Is that really _the_ Present Mic?"

"A fan, I see!" the man shouted in return, seemingly ignoring the fact that Izuku was within 'normal volume level' range. "Are you here for the recommended students exam?"

"I - " Izuku started, torn between reality and his fanboyish fantasy. "Yes."

"Alllllright!" Present Mic roared, leaning back on the spot and throwing both hands up to sign devil-horns. "Let's get you checked in, listener! You've got your badge?"

Izuku nodded quickly, reaching into his jean pocket. He retrieved the ID card Aizawa had given him and handed it over to the professional hero.

"Thaaaank you!" he boomed, gracefully taking off his shades and raising the card to his face. As Izuku watched nervously, he noticed just how _long_ Present Mic's nose was - granted, cameras typically didn't show particular facial features all that well, but the man had an absolute, bona-fide schonz.

"You're all cleared, Midoriya!" he eventually said, handing the card back. "The locker rooms are through the main doors, down the hall to the right, then take the first left, and in _that_ hallway, it's the third door on the left. Got it?"

Izuku took his badge and stuffed it back into his backpack. "I think so."

"Right on! After you're done changing and have any equipment you may need, head out to the track." After finishing, Present Mic stepped to the side and gestured for him to continue on.

Izuku did as instructed and walked up to the hulking front doors, pulled them open, and disappeared inside.

* * *

He didn't have to do much changing, getting ready was mostly a matter of throwing on his new belt (he'd long since slotted the vials into it and attached his coin pouch to the clip at his side) and adorning the mistcloak. He'd opted for the same outfit he was most comfortable in - jeans and his 'shirt' shirt.

By the time he got out to the track, there was already a small crowd gathered in the middle of the field. Well, _crowd_ was a bit of a loose term, considering the only people within ten meters of each other were the people that seemed to be the overseers for the event. The rest, presumably the examinees, where spread across the area, idly standing with no signs of wanting to socialize.

"That makes four," one of the teachers said. "Only waiting on two more."

Izuku gulped, coming to a stop in his own little corner of the open field, pretty much equally spaced from everyone else.

 _When you get there, it would be a good idea to size up the competition, they'll be all the people you're competing against._ Aizawa's advice reverberated through Izuku's head and he forced him to tear his gaze from the grass below his feet. As much as he wanted to count the blades of grass, it would be a good idea to get a scope of the competition.

Directly to his left stood a boy about his height with bone-white hair and a line of teeth where his lips should have been, giving off a skeleton-like appearance. That aesthetic was furthered by his exceptionally pale skin, even more so than Izuku's own. To his left was a girl in completely casual clothes and outside of a serene, pine-green color of hair that he wished he could have without needing to dye, she had no notable features.

Finally, outside of the teachers running the exam (of which he was pretty sure one was Cementoss and he was trying his best not to start freaking out) there was only one other examinee, a short, chubby kid that looked just unfit enough to seem out of place.

"There we are!" one of the teachers (yep, definitely Cementoss) yelled, waving. "You two, hurry it up!"

Izuku followed the hero's gaze to the other side of the field where two figures were slowly approaching. As they got closer, he was able to see just what was going on. Both were boys, but that was just about where the similarities stopped. The boy on the right wore a simple, blue tracksuit and utility belt. The blandness of the clothing brought all attention to his hair, unkempt and split right down the middle, half snow-white, half cherry-red. His gaze was fixed directly ahead, an unpleasant frown plastered on his face, and he was practically acting like the boy next to him didn't exist.

The other one, on the other hand, was energetic. He moved around as he spoke in the two-tone-haired boy's ear, practically talking with his hands, gesturing dramatically. Even from halfway across the field, Izuku could see a huge smile on his face. He was also _tall_ , so much so that he had to slouch significantly in order to be at the same height as the person he was attempting to have a conversation with.

 _What an odd duo…_ Izuku thought. Eventually, they joined the group and anything the energetic boy had been talking about faded away to silence quickly, and though he still stood right next to the other boy, the latter didn't particularly approve of that decision, if the side-eyed glare was anything to go off of.

"Ahem…" Cementoss cleared his throat, drawing the attention of all six contestants. "Let me start off by welcoming you to this year's Yuuei recommended student exam. I'm sure you all know the logistics for how you and why you were selected, so I'll save you the explanation."

Chubby kid snorted but kept his mouth shut.

Cementoss continued, ignoring the interruption. "The exam will consist of two parts: a physical fitness and Quirk apprehension test, followed by a practical exam. The results of the first section will be used as the seeding for the second portion, you are not directly assessed on the first section's results, but performing well will allow for easier matchups in the second portion."

"Question!" the energetic boy practically shouted, standing straight up and raising his hand right above his head. "What is the format for the first part of the exam?"

"I was getting there," Cementoss sighed. "It will be the same structure as your national fitness testing, with the exception that you are allowed to full use of your Quirk."

"Thank you!" the boy shouted in return, dropping his hand back to his side.

"Let's get started then. First up is the ball throw."

* * *

Izuku was mentally preparing himself for the first event when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He jumped away in shock, skittering to a stop a few meters away.

"Oh, sorry, I should've given you more warning," the green-haired girl - one of the only normal-looking at the entire event - said, scratching at the back of her head. "My bad."

Izuku let out a breath. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting it."

"Nervous?" She smirked as she once again closed the distance between them. "Don't worry, I am, too."

Fundamentally, the apprehension test was identical to the tests he'd done with Aizawa multiple times to gauge the progress of his Quirk, so he already had an entire arsenal of strategies to use. Of course, that didn't stop him from overthinking it and psyching himself out.

"What hero recommended you?" the girl's voice came.

"Hmm?" Izuku turned, bringing his attention back to her. "Sorry, I didn't hear."

"I asked what pro recommended you. For me it's my ma, she's Reptilia."

"Re - " Izuku sputtered. "Reptilia? As in Osaka's number one rescue hero?"

"Born and raised," she smirked. "The name's Tokage Setsuna, by the way."

Izuku gulped, suddenly feeling as if he were in the presence of royalty. "Midoriya Izuku," he said. "And I was recommended by Eraserhead."

"Underground hero, yeah? I'm not the biggest hero nerd out there but I know a bit."

Izuku just nodded and silence fell between them for a few moments before Cementoss called for the event to start.

"Tokage! You're up first!" the pro hero yelled.

"Good luck!" Tokage said as she jogged towards the circle, slapping Izuku on the back as she passed.

"Good luck…" Izuku echoed.

* * *

When it came time for the final event, the fifty meter dash, Izuku was sitting in third place, and while third wasn't anything to be complaining about, he still couldn't suppress his uneasiness due to not knowing how many students were actually accepted. For all he knew, only one examinee would be accepted.

With the help of tin and pewter, he was able to focus and employ all of the strategies he'd used in Aizawa's versions of the same events. He used pewter almost exclusively, taking second place in the grip strength event and completely blowing the distance run out of the water with a far-and-away first place.

Tokage's Quirk, as it turned out, was the ability to split her body into individual parts, and Izuku had to forcibly keep himself from fixating on that power alone and all of the interesting applications it could possibly have - both in combat and otherwise. The other contestants had equally interesting Quirks;the two-tone-hair guy had the ability to generate mass volumes of ice at an impressive level of control and his tall...acquaintance (Izuku was fairly certain by now that they weren't friends at all) had the ability to manipulate _wind_ of all things. The skeleton-like boy could soften the ground at will, which didn't do him much good considering the nature of the tests.

The least interesting of the bunch was the chubby kid, who was in dead last place. The best guess Izuku could make at his Quirk was...weaponized flatulence. All the boy seemed to be able to do was propel himself with flaming farts, all of which didn't exactly smell like roses. At this point, Izuku was just grateful that he had the foresight to wear fireproof pants. About halfway through the exam Tokage had told him that he was a kid from her school, another hero's kid but one that had gotten the short end of the stick when it came to how his parents' Quirks combined.

" _His arrogance dissolved as soon as he realized he couldn't just get by on daddy's name anymore,"_ she'd said, which reminded him of something Aizawa would say.

"Last up, fifty meter dash!" Cementoss said, most of the energy he'd had at the start of the exam completely gone. "Split up into heats: Todoroki Shoto and Inasa Yorarashi, then Midoriya Izuku and Hoenuki Juzo, then Tokage Setsuna and…" he paused. "I can't pronounce your name, but you know who you are. Whoever I didn't say, you're with Tokage in the last heat."

Two-tone-hair and tall boy both broke away from the group and walked down the track to where the starting line was and got ready to run, the rest of the contestants on the sideline to watch.

By the time Izuku registered that the cap gun had gone off, signifying the start of the race, it was already all over with a blast of icy wind. Two-tone-hair had made a streak of ice to propel himself forward, leaving behind a long, spiky trail. Tall boy, on the other hand, had just launched himself forwards on pure air pressure, riding the wind all the way to the finish line. Both boys finished with a time less than two seconds and within a tenth of a second from each other.

"Hey! Todoroki! Look how close that was!" the tall boy yelled after looking at the time. "Good job man!" With that, he stuck out his hand for a handshake.

Then, the two-tone-haired boy, Todoroki, glanced at the hand, and when he looked back up, the emptiness behind his eyes unsettled Izuku. For the first time since the start of the exam, Todoroki spoke. "If all you're going to do is waste my time, then get out of the way. I'm not here to make friends." He stepped right by the taller boy, leaving him stunned with his arm still extended.

Izuku wouldn't have been able to hear the exchange without tin, and he would've been better off not hearing it all together. There was still an entire exam left to go, afterall, he didn't have time to waste on getting angry on another person's behalf, but something about how Todoroki had blown off Inasa the entire time, only to say something like _that_ to him really did not sit well with Izuku. It just exuded an air of superiority, as if the boy believed he was the only one that deserved to be participating in the exam and anyone else was just a waste of his time. _That_ part is what unsettled Izuku the most.

"Heat two, you're up!" Cementoss said, placing one hand on the ground and absorbing the ice into the concrete. Izuku stepped forward, forcing his gaze away from the back of Todoroki's head.

* * *

In the fifteen minute break between portions of the exam, Izuku was able to get himself to calm down. The way that Todoroki had completely dismissed Inasa still didn't sit right with him, and as the overall attitude he had towards his fellow contestants became more and more apparent, that feeling just grew. Still, he forced the feeling down because there was a task at hand: the second half of the exam.

"Alright, let's get this started," Cementoss said. "This is the monitor room for metro training area one. On the monitors you'll see footage from various areas of one of the buildings. On the inside, there is a fake bomb made of paper mache. .This Is how things will work: One student will be defending the bomb and the other will be attacking. The attacking team can win by either securing the bomb or wrapping capture tape around one of the defender's limbs, and the defending team can win by either keeping the attacking team away from the bomb until the time limit, or by using the capture tape. Are there questions?"

"Yeah," Tokage said from the other side of the group. "Where'd that tall kid go?"

"Yoarashi Inasa decided to pull out after the first section of the exam due to personal reasons," the pro hero responded simply, frowning.

Izuku bit his lip, gaze shooting to Todoroki out of the corner of his eye, only to see a completely impassive look on his fellow examinee's face. _What he said to him is probably the reason Inasa left. I mean, he was in first place, who would pass up an opportunity like that?_

"That actually leaves us with 2 blank spots in our planned seeding, as each contestant was going to be involved in two battles. So, both Tokage and Midoriya will only fight once instead of twice," Cementoss continued. "This will be taken into consideration when your admission is considered."

Izuku gulped and nodded, just barely stopping himself from objecting. Fighting once instead of twice just meant that he'd have to make a better showing in the opportunity he was given.

"Alright, if that's all then let's get started!"

* * *

 _Hello everyone! Just dropping in to say that, if you haven't seen it yet and are a fan of Fate/Stay Night, myself and Dewyn have started a collaboration work that takes place after Unlimited Blade Works. If you like Fate, I'd appreciate it if you could go read it here: (add https to this and replace the comma with a period: fanficiton_ _,net/s/13614035/1/Fate-save-life)_


	17. Hiatus

Alright everyone, first off, for a while I didn't want to be that author that sent out a big ol' notification to everyone that isn't actually a chapter, but eventually I decided y'all should know exactly what's going on

I'm putting this story on _break_. This is an indefinite hiatus, but it's not going to be forever. This story will be back some day, and I hope you all will come back around to see it when it does. The reason that I've decided to put this story on break is because I've recently finally decided that I'm going to pursue writing an original work. This story has been in planning for almost a year and a half now, and it's been my dream since i was a kid to eventually write a book and get it published. I realized recently that if I ever want to actually follow through on that, I need to write the book while I have the time to, and since I'll be graduating uni in a couple years, I need to get it done before I move on to working a full time job and have no time. As such, I decided to cut my loose ends and roll with what makes me happy, which is writing my original story.

That means that this story is going to be put on hold, as are the rest of my incomplete projects. The only one that won't be is Fate/Save Life because that is a collaboration work, so splitting my time on it makes it worthwhile (besides, myself and Dewyn plan to take that as far as we've planned it to, at the very least).

Finally, a parting note, if anybody would like to see where I go with my original work, or at least the beginning of it, it is posted on my Ao3 account under the story title _Abdication - Pitch_. This is just a pitch for the prlogue and is barely longer than 1400 words, but I would greatly appreciate anybody that is interested to go check it out and leave me feedback. It's just meant to be a hook for the story, so keep that in mind if you do end up checking it out. The story can be found on my Archive Of Our Own profile of the same name as this account.

That's all from me, See you all in the next one!


End file.
